


The Rose Bleeds, But We're The Band Aid

by Awesomepie3221



Category: Fall Out Boy, Panic! at the Disco
Genre: Actor AU, Angst with a Happy Ending, Anxiety, F/M, Filming, M/M, Seperation, movie, movies - Freeform, the beach
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-04
Updated: 2018-04-04
Packaged: 2018-09-14 15:45:14
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 28,795
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9190184
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Awesomepie3221/pseuds/Awesomepie3221
Summary: Patrick Stump is close to becoming an A-list celebrity actor. Pete Wentz is just now realizing his potential as an actor. Pete's bad acting and an even worse movie is what brings them together. Of course, both believe they are capable of a lot more than they really are.





	1. Don't You Know Who I Think I Am?

**Author's Note:**

> Reminder: this is fanfiction, not fact. Pete and Patrick aren't together and are both happily in love with children. Keep that in mind as you ship the two (also keep in mind to respect their privacy 'cause I'm still upset about Patrick's Christmas card)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so happy to finally be able to post my beloved actor au <3 I hope you all enjoy reading it as much I've enjoyed writing it! Shout out to Cat for being my beta!

Patrick woke up with the sun in his eyes, a puddle of sweat sitting around him, and a sharp ringing coming from who knows where. He flipped to the left side of his bed, expecting to see his phone there, plugged in and fully charged. Instead, he was greeted with nothing but the glowing letters of his alarm clock telling him it was 8AM, way too early for him to be awake.

He groaned and raked his hand across his face. He was tempted to ignore his ringing phone and instead snuggle into his sheets and go back to sleep. He would have done it if he hadn’t remembered his agent specifically telling him not to ignore his phone calls anymore, even if they were too early in the morning. He knew the phone would be his agent, so he got over himself.

He racked his brain to try and remember where he last used his phone last night, considering he had no memories of plugging it in. He must have fallen asleep using it. He kicked up the blankets (which was a relief, because the early morning sun was making his room hot) and felt a heavy object near the middle. He managed to grab it with his hand after twisting around and he pressed accept. 

“Hey,” he said.

“You sound out of it,” his agent responded.

“I just woke up.” He cleared his throat.

“I wish I could sleep in like that. Anyway, I got an audition for you later today,” he paused, “6pm, some rom-com. It’s for the leading man. You up for it?”

“Pretty early for these decisions, Joe, don’t you think?”

“Considering that by up for it I meant ‘are you sick?’, no, it’s not too early.” Patrick heard some papers shuffle from the other line. 

“Then I guess I am up for it. Text me the address and I’ll be there.”

“Do your best, Patrick. You need some work.” Patrick heard the beep of the other line ending. 

Why the hell did Joe think he needed work? Not like he was poor or anything, he had starred in five movies just the past few years. He was still in the media regularly, invited to award shows and all that stuff. He was practically an A-list celebrity. Joe knew did Hollywood better than him though, so he decided, despite his internal protests, to just trust him and audition for the movie. 

He knew he should get up and take a shower, but he felt like sleep was a better idea, and he had a few hours to kill. So he took a morning nap, or whatever you call it.

He re-woke up around 11pm, which was much more to his liking. He figured instead of making himself breakfast he might as well go out to some café for lunch. He didn’t mind fans coming for an autograph and if he showered, the paparazzi really wouldn’t annoy him. Let them get their boring photos of him eating something at a café. 

In an hour he ended up at lunch at some hipster place that always had pretty good food and was close to his apartment. It was his lucky day (and not because it was a weekday), as he only had one person come up and ask for a picture.

“My name’s Hailey, by the way,” she said afterwards, holding her hand out for Patrick to shake. He did so with a smile on his face, but restrained himself from introducing himself. She continued, “I love your most recent movie, ‘Downtown Dreams’, it’s one of my favorite movies. I know it must be weird for a stranger to say this, but I’m gay, and the movie really spoke to me. Anyway, I’ll leave you alone now. Thank you so much, Mr. Stump.” She started to walk away but Patrick called her back before she got too far.

“Do you want to join me for lunch?” he offered.

“Wait, really?” she stared at him in disbelief and he nodded. She promptly sat down. 

“I’ve got no one else around, so why not? Plus I like how you love ‘Downtown Dreams’, ‘cause no one’s really told me that. I mean, yeah, the critics gushed about it, but not one fan has complimented it. They always say how much they love one of my early action movies or some bullcrap like that. I loved ‘Downtown Dreams’, though,” Patrick said by way of an intro. 

“That’s odd,” she said with an exaggerated face. “The movie is modern art. It’s beautifully written, and your acting was so good,” she finished, as if she still wasn’t surprised to be talking with her idol. “It’s really hard to find a good LGBT movie that isn’t oversexualized, or a crappy comedy, or just plain badly written. I absolutely adored the fact that there weren’t any sex scenes in the movie, it was very refreshing.”

Patrick smiled at her, teeth and all. She smiled just as wide and he just realized how pretty she was, yellow hair and all. He figured she had no shortage of dates.

“It was nice to read the script and know I didn’t have to film any. I hate those things,” he added with a chuckle. 

They talked for a few hours about various things. He learned a bit about her past, but he opted to stay quiet. He trusted her, but with how famous he was he didn’t want his trust betrayed. He was perfectly happy talking more, but when he realized it was 4pm, he had to excuse himself and leave. She understood and gave him a hug before he left. 

He travelled back to his apartment, finally checking the text Joe had sent him a while ago with the details of the audition. The audition building was only about thirty minutes away, so he got lucky in that sense. At his apartment, all he did was change into some nicer clothes. 

Much to his impatient self’s displeasure, he got there forty-five minutes early and was stuck waiting in the hall, surrounded by other (inexperienced) actors, who always felt the need to practice their lines in the waiting room, and not before the audition like they should. But Patrick really wasn’t one to talk, considering he didn’t even practice his lines. He planned on going in and winging it.

The actor closest to him, sitting just a few seats away, was reading the loudest in the room. Patrick decided to make a game out of it and listen to people to guess what part they wanted, just by assuming the generic tropes that were likely in this movie. After he got bored with that, he finally opened the copy of his script that he got handed when he arrived and found that the person closest to him was practicing for the male lead’s best friend, and quite honestly, not doing the best job. He definitely wasn’t awful, though. 

His ears locked onto this dude and he eventually found where he was reading in the script and started reading the lead’s response to himself, his mouth forming the words. He didn’t notice that the other dude didn’t start reading until Patrick had finished. 

“Dude, that was awesome!” he heard the person exclaim right as the scene finished. He jumped a bit and willed himself not to blush, embarrassed for being caught. “Let’s do that again, but this time you read the lines out loud,” the person offered.

“Um, sure,” Patrick said after thinking for a few seconds about it. The other guy scooted to the seat next to him and they reset their script to the beginning of the scene.

“Hey, you’re Patrick Stump, right?” he asked before they began. Patrick nodded and the guy gave him a wide smile. “Love your movies. Maybe we’ll both get cast for this movie!” he said excitedly.

“Yeah, maybe.” Patrick didn’t actually want to get cast, but he wasn’t about to stomp on this dude without even knowing him.

“I’m Pete Wentz,” he started. “I’ve only ever done a few auditions before this one, mostly commercials. I don’t know how my agent landed this one, especially being the lead’s best friend. I mean I’ve never even had an actual role before! And now there’s a chance I’ll play Patrick Stump’s best friend!”

Patrick didn’t want to break it to him that this role wasn’t actually that good, judging by the small part he had read. It seemed pretty badly written and one dimensional. Instead he said:

“I guess there’s a chance I’ll get to be Pete Wentz’s best friend.” Pete gave another smile, this one filled with even more excitement. “Shall we get started?” Patrick suggested. 

“Oh, yeah, sure!”

For the next ten minutes, they read lines to each other. Patrick gave it all he had for Pete’s sake, and Patrick could tell Pete was trying, but he had troubles at some parts. All in all, he wasn’t that bad, like Patrick had decided earlier. His biggest problem was keeping a constant tone in his voice. He consistently changed from, for example, disgust to anger in the middle of a sentence that didn’t call for it.

Pete was called in for his audition right as Patrick finished reading the last line. Pete flipped his script back to the beginning of the scene and flashed Patrick one last smile as he got up.

“I’m feeling confident!” he said right before entering the room. 

Patrick stared at the door for at least a minute. He kept thinking about Pete, realizing that he was actually pretty cute. He admired his confidence as well. He knew when he first started acting he didn’t have that. He may not want the part himself, but he hoped Pete got the part.

Which reminded him, the script really did suck. It wasn’t a blockbuster hit in the slightest. It was the same washed-up and exhausted rom-com. He honestly felt like the movie would be a huge waste of his time. 

He continued to run these thoughts through his head and before he knew it, his name was being called and it was time to audition.

“Hi, Mr. Stump, honor to have you here,” the casting director chirped at him as he entered. He smiled as well as he could. “I’m sure you’ve already read over the scene, right?” He gave his response and she continued. “My partner here will read the lines as the best friend.” She pointed to a young looking male next to her and he gave a small, bored looking wave. 

Patrick thought about reading the lines badly, but he cleared his throat and put blind faith in Joe and read his first line as best as he could.

“She’s hot, dude. Go for it,” the co-casting director read with little to no emotion.

“I dunno, I mean she doesn’t look like she’s too eager for another boyfriend.”

“She posted that a few days ago, and on Facebook. Come on, we both know her crush on you from high school never went away.” 

Patrick scoffed and read the next line. 

They finished the scene up and the casting director gave a wide smile at him.

“That was great, Mr. Stump. We’ll call your agent in the next few days if you made the callback. Between you and me though, you most likely did,” she said, with a wink at the end.

“Thank you,” he said as he exited. 

 

Joe called him the next day to tell him he made the callback and the next auditions was in a week. Patrick complained a bit about the movie, but Joe basically told him to shut up and do the audition. Patrick hung up with a heavy ‘fine’.

The week went by slowly. He really didn’t have much to do except for some “spring cleaning”. He didn’t do much though, as he kept getting distracted or really bored. 

The final audition went well and ended with yet another wink from the casting director. He knew he made the role, but, still, he wasn’t excited. Not like he was for “Downtown Dreams.” He knew the difference was “Downtown Dreams” was innovative and new, while this movie was yet another cheesy and overused rom-com. He hated Joe for making him do it. 

He got the final call a few days to later only to confirm what he already knew: he got the part of Mark Smith, to fall in love with Ashley Harris. 

“Congratulations, Patrick!” the cheery casting director said to him. “Filming starts in two weeks. Call us if you have any questions.”

“Thank you,” Patrick politely said. “When will scripts be sent?”

“They’re being sent out tomorrow. Is that all?” 

“Yes,” Patrick responded before saying his goodbye. The casting director hung up and Patrick sighed. 

 

The script got to him two days later and he sat down to read through the whole thing.

The first page he opened made him cringe. It was describing his character, as his was the first to be introduced. Mark Smith was described to be a sports guy stuck in a dead-end job who, in the first scene, is complaining about being single to his best friend. His best friend then goes on to tell him that he’ll find someone soon, because he’s a good guy. 

The best friend wasn’t any less cringe worthy. He was another sports guy, but this time he was afraid of commitment and a womanizer who probably drank too much. Just like every other best friend in every other rom-com. 

But that also reminded him about Pete Wentz, who had auditioned for the best friend. He hadn’t thought about him since that first audition, actually. Patrick hoped that he had received the role, but he also doubted it. Pete had looked the part, but he probably wasn’t the best actor that auditioned. He wanted to work with Pete mostly because he was the kind of guy that made filming worth it with his enthusiasm. 

Patrick finally shook the thoughts away and continued to read the script. The best friend, Aidan, got even worse and more one-dimensional as he read. At the end of the scene where Mark was complaining about having no girlfriend, Aidan left with some random girl for a one-night-stand. 

Patrick seriously had no idea how he would get through the rest of the script. 

Mark’s future girlfriend was introduced about ten pages in, after a way too long scene about Mark’s boring job. She ended up being another stereotype—a quirky girl who owned her own business and loved it, even though she was poor. And of course, she had recently gotten out of a long relationship. 

Patrick managed to predict the rest of the script almost perfectly and when he finished he let out a very long sigh. “This movie is awful,” he whispered to himself.

He spent the rest of the day watching TV and hoping that Pete Wentz had gotten the role of Aidan.

 

He woke up the next day by ringing phone, again. It was Joe, again, because Joe just loved to force Patrick out of his sleep. 

“Hey,” Patrick answered.

“Lunch?” Joe asked. 

“You couldn’t have texted me that?” He’s irritated and he doesn’t bother hiding it from Joe.

“Who knows if you would have woken up by then,” Joe said, and Patrick could feel the smirk. 

“Okay, fine, but you couldn’t have waited until later to call me with that?”

“I didn’t feel like it.”

“You’re awful, Joe,” Patrick mumbled. He tried to turn to the other side of his bed to stretch out but was greeted with a crap ton of sun in his eyes that made him change his mind. “Where do you want to go?” Patrick finally said.

“I’ve been feeling Dairy Queen lately.”

“Twelve?”

“Yup.”

“Okay, I’ll be there. Bye, Joe.”

 

“So, what did you think of the script?” Joe asked once Patrick sat down next to him at the two-person table. Joe opened his food containers and dumped his fries out. 

“I don’t think I’ve ever cringed that much.” 

“Yeah, I only read a little bit of it.” 

“Do you know who else was cast?” Patrick asked, ignoring Joe’s response. He had Pete on his mind.

“Uh, yeah. Hold on, lemme remember,” Joe said through a mouth full of fries. Patrick wanted to be grossed out but he was so used to it. “I know Ashley is Halsey. She’s not very big yet. Aidan is, um…, Pete Wentz, I think. And then I know someone named Travie McCoy is in the movie, but I have no idea who he plays. Maybe Ashley’s brother.” 

“Pete Wentz?” Patrick’s hopes flew up. Maybe the movie wouldn’t be so horrible at all.

“Yup. Do you know him? He’s new to the scene.” 

“Yeah,” Patrick made himself sound calm. “He and I read lines to each other during the first audition. I didn’t think he’d get the role.”

“That’s nice. Maybe you’ll have another friend that isn’t me,” Joe joked. Patrick laughed, finally digging into his food.

 

Patrick showed up to the first day of filming having already memorized half of his lines. He had always been good at memorizing things. It was something he had put on his resume when he first started acting. 

The first person Patrick saw at the table-read was Pete Wentz. Joe had been right, he was playing Aidan. Patrick had to hide his excitement, because now the movie was actually going to be bearable. He didn’t doubt that some of the other cast members would be entertaining as well, but he had really been focused on Pete. 

All the casted members read their lines, but nothing was smooth yet. They all had to get used to each other. Pete kept making the same mistakes he did during the audition, and it reminded Patrick that he had no idea how Pete had gotten the part. He figured it was because of money, because Pete was a new actor and they didn’t have to pay him much. Unlike Patrick, who couldn’t help but be an expensive actor after he did multiple big budget films. 

They all read their various scenes; Patrick only had two that he wasn’t in. Those scenes were to give a generic backstory to Ashley, and Mark was obviously not needed. They got through approximately a quarter of the script before the director gave them all a lunch break. 

Pete was the first one to approach Patrick with a super enthusiastic smile. Patrick couldn’t help but return it. 

“I really do get to play Patrick Stump’s best friend!” he exclaimed.

“And I get to play Pete Wentz’s best friend,” Patrick responded, playing off the conversation they had a few weeks ago. Pete laughed.

“Okay, well,” Pete said with slight hesitation. “I won’t bug you now. Gotta officially meet all the other actors.” Patrick nodded and prevented himself from telling Pete that he really only cared to talk to him, not the others.

Halsey approached him after Pete left and Patrick pretended to be excited to meet her. 

 

The table read lasted until the sun went down and Patrick seemed to be the only one desperate to go home. He kept his face blank and didn’t downplay his acting, but he knew he would much rather be at home, watching some random movie. 

Once they are finally dismissed, Patrick is ready to leave before anyone has the chance to talk to him. He doesn’t want to end up at the studio longer than he needs to.

Right before he leaves through the door, he catches Pete waving goodbye to him.


	2. The Carpal Tunnel Of Love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's not a date, but it's something.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's an easter egg in here that I just know Anna will love <3
> 
> Anyway, chapter two is finally up. I planned on it being longer, but I also just wanted it up. 
> 
> Shout out to Kahvi for editing this one, love ya bro

Patrick had believed he was too old for crushes. He thought that once he reached his age he’d either be married already or just be able to straight up ask someone out. That wasn’t the case with Pete, though.

Mostly since he’s lying in bed, wide awake, at two in the morning, desperately hoping he could sort whatever his feelings were for Pete. Just like his high school days when he realized he may not actually like girls.

Also like high school, Patrick had no clue as to why he had a crush on Pete. He wasn’t that interesting- Patrick worked with people like him all the time. People with stunning eyes and full lips and a good body and an optimistic smile. Nothing he could think of was new except the confidence Pete exhibited. Patrick had always been drawn towards confident people, stemming from his own confidence issues. His first relationship was a girl in his freshmen year of high school who always wore heels and walked with her head held high and Patrick hadn’t exactly liked her but he had admired her unwavering confidence. The relationship only lasted a month.

Patrick hated himself at that moment. He didn’t want a relationship if it meant this pining phase. He really wanted to start a relationship at the ten year phase, where it was comfortable and not as emotionally demanding. Instead he had focused on his career, leading him to this situation. His

But really, if he could just fucking sleep his head would be so much more clear. Maybe he wouldn’t be so desperate for Pete’s attention in the morning. All he could do was hope, though.

 

He ended up falling asleep a few hours before he had to go to work; he came to the second table read exhausted and grumpy. He tried not to be, but no matter how much coffee he drank he couldn’t help it. Joe always told him it was like whenever he didn’t sleep enough he had a second personality. Patrick didn’t like believing him, but he knew it was true. Anyone who had been friends with Patrick would tell him the exact thing.

“Hey, Pat!” Pete greeted him once he walked into the conference room. Patrick shot him a glare and Pete backed into himself.

“I don’t like Pat,” Patrick said softly, trying to make up for the glare. He looked around at the empty chairs before deciding to sit next to Pete. Maybe he would manage to keep him soft for the day.

“Okay, how about Trick?” Pete offered. He didn’t say it as confidently and it made Patrick feel bad.

“What?”

“Trick! Instead of Pat, you can just take the other part of your name. Pat-Trick,” Pete explained.

“That’s not bad.” Patrick had wanted it come out less strained, but he failed.

Pete seemed confused, like he didn’t exactly know if that was an acceptable nickname or not. Patrick smiled at him. “You can call me Trick,” he said. Pete gave him a grin and Patrick’s mood brightened.

Patrick’s mood died again after an hour of reading lines, much to Pete’s dismay. Pete kept making dumb jokes to try and distract him, but Patrick would either not pay attention or would give a forced laugh. He read all his lines normally, but he wasn’t himself. Pete was too anxious to ask why.

When lunch came around, Patrick rushed out of the room before anyone could corner him, including Pete. He walked across the street to the coffee shop to buy whatever with caffeine and whatever that was a sandwich. He had just sat down with his food when Pete walked into the shop. His eyes were darting around and Patrick knew he was looking for him. He felt like trying to hide under his arms or something, but that wouldn’t be very effective. Besides, Pete had already spotted him.

He trotted over and sat down in front of him; Patrick seriously wished that the coffee shop offered one-person seating. He was too tired to deal with his awful crush.

“Why’d you rush out so quickly?” Pete asked. Patrick mumbled something that Pete couldn’t understand but Pete didn’t ask him to repeat.

“What’s wrong?” Pete asked instead.

“I wanted to be alone,” Patrick deadpanned. Pete got a hurt look in his eyes but this time Patrick didn’t feel bad about it. He looked down at his drink and his half-eaten sandwich. He wasn’t hungry anymore.

“Well, I’ll leave you alone then, sorry,” Pete said as he got up from the table. “One more thing, does this place have good food?”

Patrick mustered a nod.

It took a few minutes after Pete left him alone before Patrick grasped what he had done. He started to feel insanely bad, but he didn’t have enough courage to go to Pete’s table and apologize. He was always a coward like that.

At the end of lunch, Pete and Patrick walked back to the studio together. It was a quiet and awkward walk, and Patrick knew he had fucked something up. He didn’t know Pete that well, but he knew pretty well that as short of a walk as this shouldn’t be so awkward.

Patrick was even more miserable the rest of the day, even though he had no right to be. The whole thing was his fault. The only good thing was that Pete had not followed Patrick when he went to a different room to eat the rest of his sandwich for the dinner break.

Why did he have to say that to Pete? A short-lived friendship that Patrick ruined because he couldn’t seem to control himself. He’s always been an asshole and he’s always done something he seriously regretted. Just never fucked up so badly to someone he had a crush on. He preferred it when he just hurt some regular friend’s feelings.

He came back in to the main conference room feeling even more exhausted after his thoughts had time to attack him. He desperately wanted to go home and it was hindering his acting. Everyone noticed, even Pete.

At the end of the table read an hour later Pete pulled him aside. Patrick clenched his fists and bit his cheek, but kept calm eyes for Pete.

“I’m not mad at you, Trick.” The use of his new nickname helped Patrick relax his fists, but he continued biting his cheek. He was getting close to drawing blood. “We all have our bad days. I mean, I’ve had my fair share of them. In fact…,” Pete trailed off and Patrick urged him to continue with his eyes. He didn’t dare open his mouth. “Never mind,” Pete finished.

Patrick stopped biting right before he broke the skin open. “I just.. didn’t get much sleep last night,” Patrick explained, eyes cast downward.

Pete nodded. “Happens to the best of us.” Patrick gave a small grin that showed a lot more in his eyes than his mouth, but Pete got the idea. “You need to go home and get some more sleep,” Pete said. Patrick agreed and turned away from him, feeling a lot better now that his mistake wasn’t tearing into him. Pete wasn’t mad, plus he had gotten a pretty cool nickname.

 

Luckily, Patrick didn’t have another sleepless night. He got a full eight hours, which he was happy with, even though he often wished for at least twelve.

“So,” the director, Gerard Way, stood up at the head of the table and clapped his hands together, “today will be improvements day. You all have done great so far, but there are some things we could all improve on. We’re going to start with Halsey. Can you read me a line?”

“What line?” she asked.

“Whichever you want.”

She flipped through the script for a few seconds before she settled on one.

“So, what’s your name? My name is Ashley; I’m an Aquarius. Why did I just say that? I don’t believe in zodiac anyway, so why would it matter if we’re a match? Are we a match? That’d be so exciting if we were! I’ve been on too many Tinder dates where it definitely did not work out. Why am I rambling? Oh, my gosh, I’m so nervous. I should really stop talking now. Back to my original question, what’s your name?” Halsey read through. She did a good job, mixing up certain words and blurting other things out.

Gerard thought for a bit before he told Halsey something she could improve on, something that Patrick hadn’t even though of.

“That’s how we’re going to do it,” Gerard further explained. “We’ll all go in a circle until we dismiss. Everyone understand?” Patrick didn’t pay attention if everyone did.

It took an hour before the circle got to Pete, the one Patrick actually wanted to hear. Pete read a short and flirty line.

“Okay, first of all, let me say our facial expression are perfect. I wouldn’t change anything about that. I have a problem with the emotions your voice conveys. That wasn’t so much flirty as I’d say.. playful. From what I’ve noticed is you seem to get a general idea as to what your voice should sound like, but you have to look deeper and pin point something more than just playful. Playful is very close to flirty, but not the same thing. I would recommend some type of acting lessons to help with that before filming.”

When the circle got to Pete again, the director gave him the same piece of advice. He was told to not change his emotions in the middle of a line later on. Patrick could tell Pete was trying as hard as he could, he just couldn’t stop it from happening.

The advice Patrick got was basically meaningless but Patrick tried to dig something from it to learn. By the end of the day he gave up as he still hadn’t made anything out of the most likely bull crap advice he had received.

The rest of the week went by pretty uneventful. Patrick wanted to talk to Pete, but he always found him while he was practicing his lines and never wanted to bug him.

By the last table read Patrick had noticed a pretty big improvement in how Pete conveyed sentences. It was a lot more accurate and even though Patrick didn’t tell him, he was very proud of Pete.

At that point Patrick had almost stopped using his script and could basically do it by memory, only having to check a few more times throughout the day. Only a few others weren’t dependent on the script anymore, but those people didn’t have many lines to begin with. Patrick had to admit he was slightly jealous of them, but he also remembered his days where he was forced to go to a week worth of table reads only to have a few lines. It wasn’t much fun.

Pete called out to Patrick as he was about to leave the studio. He jogged up to him and Patrick let go of the door.

“Yes?” Patrick said.

“Do you want to go drinking or something?”

“Tonight?” They had gotten out early that day, so ‘tonight’ was actually pretty far.

Pete nodded his head vigorously. “I still need help with my acting and you’re the best actor here. I was wondering if you would help me?”

Patrick thought about it for a few seconds before agreeing to help. Pete got excited and hugged Patrick; it was done before Patrick knew it had started, but it didn’t stop his heart from racing.

“Thank you, Trick. Give me your number and I’ll text you details?”

“Yeah,” Patrick said. Pete took out his phone quickly and set it up for Patrick to add himself as a contact.

 

**want to have dinner?** Pete texted.

His response was quick. _burger king?_

**sure, meet in 30**

Pete got to the restaurant early and ordered his food while he waited for his friend Brendon to show up. He got his food right as Brendon arrived and then sat and waited for him to get his. A few minutes later Brendon sat down with his own tray and started unwrapping everything.

“So, what’s on your mind?” Brendon started.

“Patrick.”

“Patrick Stump?”

“Yeah. I’ve been too nervous to actually flirt with him and it’s awful. All I’ve managed to do was ask him out drinking tonight, but then I even asked that up by asking if he can help me with my acting.”

“Could that not be considered a date?” Brendon said, sarcastically. Pete glared at him and Brendon laughed.

“That’s work. I don’t want work! My anxiety is killing me, man.”

“I don’t remember flirting being that bad though,” Brendon tried to console. Pete glared at him again.

“Yeah, well,” Pete said. “Maybe it’s because he’s famous.”

“Maybe it’s because you have a really big crush on this dude,” Brendon offered through a bite of his burger.

“What if I make a move and he doesn’t reciprocate?” Pete put his head on his hands and stared at his food.

Brendon shrugged. “Then you somehow move on. This guy starred in a gay move, if he isn’t actually gay he won’t judge you or anything. You’ll be fucking fine, Pete. You should just make a move.”

“Easy for you to say,” Pete mumbled. “You’ve always been so confident.”

“Doesn’t always help me though. I’ve done some embarrassing things.”

“It helped you get Sarah.”

“Yeah, but it was also pure luck. I have no idea why she chose me; she’s way out of my league.”

“Patrick’s way out of my league.”

Brendon waved his finger in Pete’s face. “You can only think that way when you _fall in love_. Before then, you both are on the same league.”

“And you thought like that before you got Sarah?” Pete gave him a bitchy face.

Brendon nodded as he chewed another bite.

“I doubt that.” Brendon gave him a goofy look and Pete let out a laugh.

“Man, things would be so much easier if he just initiated a conservation at least once. He has yet to and it makes me feel like I’m really annoying.”

“I don’t think he thinks that.”

“I don’t know. Probably. He snapped at me the other day when I went to talk to him at a coffee shop. Man, I just like him so much.”

“Why would he snap at you?”

“He said he was tired,” Pete said, a bit tired himself. He hadn’t touched his food since Brendon sat down.

“He probably was, then. He doesn’t seem like he’s the type to lie.” Brendon had finished his burger and was balling the wrapper up.

“How would you know?” Pete looked at his practically cold fries and figured he should at least those. He picked one up and forced it in to his mouth.

“I watched a bunch of his interviews once you first mentioned him.”

“Really?” Brendon nodded.

Pete immediately brightened up. “I didn’t think you cared that much,” he said.

“Of course I do! Plus, I want to know the type of dude my friend’s got a crush on.”

“You’re too good for me, Brendon,” Pete joked.

“I know I am,” Brendon responded as he did a mock hair flip.

 

Patrick’s phone buzzed on the counter. He looked at it and tried to make out what the lit up screen said, but he couldn’t. He pulled his hands out of the dish water and dried them off before turning his phone screen back on.

_hey, it’s pete. still on for tonight?_ The text read. Patrick immediately added Pete to his contacts before responding.

**Of course. When and where?** Patrick put his phone down again and finished washing the last plate. He drained the sink and washed his hands before checking his phone again. Pete had responded with the name of a bar that was close to Patrick’s apartment.

**Sounds good. Remember to bring your script.** Patrick sent back.

 

The bar had a neon light in the front that flashed its name, followed by another sign that read ‘open’ and was only non-lit when it the bar wasn’t open. Patrick had only been to this bar once before, when he had first moved to the city. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t his favorite as it was a sports bar. He was never one to get into sports. Pete, with the recommendation of this bar, was probably a sports guy.

He entered the bar and moved away from the door, while he took some time to look around and find Pete, who was starting at a TV playing some hockey game. He joined Pete’s booth and got his attention.

“You too focused on the game to practice anymore?” Patrick said. Pete let out a light chuckle.

“It’s tied, I can’t help it,” he defended.

Patrick rolled his eyes. “Of course, you can’t.

“So, are you ready?”

“You really like getting things done, don’t you? You just got here, let’s have a drink first!” Pete said, fulling turning to Patrick.

Patrick shrugged. “I don’t feel like drinking. We have work tomorrow.”

“Suit yourself. Me? I’m getting a fucking margarita.” Pete stood up and made his way to the bar. Patrick sighed and took both scripts and found the page he wanted to start with. It was a page that had been bugging Patrick for a while because Pete never managed to read his line right, no matter how much he practiced. He was selfishly glad he finally had the chance to correct Pete himself.

Pete came back a few minutes later holding a platter of mozzarella sticks and his drink.

“I don’t know if you ate dinner or not, but I got these to hold us over.” Pete grinned at Patrick and it made Patrick want to smack Pete. The only reason he didn’t was because his only excuse would be he hadn’t been thought about in a while.

“Let’s just get going, okay?”

“Okay, I’m ready,” Pete responded. “Thanks for opening up the script, by the way.”

“No problem. Start when you’re ready.”

Pete took a small drink and then cleared his throat.

“No, seriously, Mark, you like this woman, right?” Aiden said, but Pete read. Patrick had learned years ago not to think hard about that. Pete stopped and looked expectantly at Patrick.

“You aren’t reading it seriously enough. You’re reading it more humorous, which, don’t get me wrong, is a characteristic of Aiden, but not for this scene. He’s being serious, he wants Mark to chase after Ashley. Think about the last time you seriously talked with one of your good friends,” Patrick said.

Pete thought to just a few hours ago when he talking to Brendon. He read through the line again, working hard to keep his voice even.

“Okay, now there isn’t enough emotion,” said Patrick. Pete put the script down and looked at Patrick.

“Can you read it to give me an example?”

“Sure.” Patrick read through the line almost perfectly; Pete was jealous by the end. “Try again,” Patrick finished.

Pete imitated Patrick as best as he could and when he looked back up Patrick was smiling at him.

“That was good!” he exclaimed and Pete felt slightly more confident.

The next couple hours went on like this. Patrick would pick a scene, Pete would read it to the best of his ability, then Patrick would read it to give Pete an example. Eventually Pete couldn’t focus anymore.

“I should probably get going anyway. I treasure my sleep,” Patrick said. Pete internally panicked as he didn’t want Patrick to leave.

“No, stay!” Pete burst out a little too loud. Patrick stopped moving and looked at Pete, who swallowed a ball of spit.

“Let’s just hang out for a little bit, Trick. It’s only eleven, we’ve got some time,” he said as smoothly as he could. Patrick thought for a few seconds too long for Pete’s racing hearts liking, but agreed to stay.

“I guess neither of us ate the mozzarella sticks, did we?” Patrick compromised.

“You’re right.” Patrick grabbed one as he realized he was pretty hungry.

“So, uh, do you have any pets?” Patrick awkwardly started. He wasn’t a very charismatic person.

Pete laughed and Patrick hid under the hat he forgot he was wearing. “Awkward, huh?” Pete jokingly said.

Patrick nodded and Pete laughed again. “It’s why I wear the hat,” Patrick explained. “Helps me hide from the cameras.”

“Why did you choose a career in acting, then?”

Patrick shrugged. “I did a lot of plays when I was younger, and I’d always get the leading roles, so I knew I was good at it. All four years I did theatre production in high school and, again, I’d get all the leading roles.  The director always told me I was generally the best. It just seemed like a good career for me. To be honest, I wanted to do broadway.”

“Really?” Pete said without a second thought. “What made you stop?”

“Everyone told me I didn’t have the voice for it. Wasn’t smooth enough or something. I don’t know, I don’t dwell on it.”

“I’m sorry, Trick.”

Patrick chuckled. “It’s fine. That was ten years ago, I’ve had time to get over it. So, what made you want to act?”

“Being in a band didn’t work.”

“Seriously?” Pete nodded. Patrick smiled and started to imagine Pete on a stage, running around with the crowd. He would own the entire stage, there’s no doubt about that.

“Yeah, I just couldn’t find a steady band. I was in a few that managed to get a record deal and one managed to get an album out, but our fucking record company dropped us immediately and we never got picked back up so we went our separate ways. After twenty years I gave up on a band and went to acting.”

“What kind of bands where you in?”

“I was in a few metal bands, a few heavy rock, one was a pop band, but that was way too weird for me. I was in so many that I can’t even remember.”

“Well, what was the band that got the album produced?”

“Arma Angelus. We weren’t that good though, considering I was the lead singer.” Patrick didn’t care and made a mental note to listen to the music later.

Patrick started, “I used to play drums when I was a kid, but I was always so busy doing plays that I didn’t have much time to practice them. Eventually I let my mom sell them at our garage sale when I was ten.”

“That’s a little sad.” Pete still owned the first guitar he had ever bought, but it was still packed from his recent move. Most of his things where still packed, though.

“I guess it could be, but I’m probably happier acting that I would have been being a drummer. With acting I can turn into someone else, but being a drummer in a band.. I would have had to always be myself.”

“What was the first play you did?” Pete asked, almost right away. He was freaking out to get the question in before the subject was changed.

“ _My Son Pinocchio_ ,” Patrick said with a smile. “I played Pinocchio when I was, like, five. I’m still baffled at how I remembered all those lyrics.”

“How did it feel having on the long nose?”

“Oh, I was _pissed_. I let my real temper show before I agreed to put that thing on. I almost made the director cry, I made her so stressed out.

“You must have been a hard five-year-old to work with.”

“I’m still hard to work with.” Pete started laughing and Patrick grinned as he stared at Pete’s smile. It flooded Patrick with everything positive and squeezed his heart in its beauty. His crush was still annoying, that’s for sure.

They continued talking until it was 1 am and last call was being served. Patrick panicked when he saw the time and realized he was going to get little sleep, but Pete somehow managed to reassure him he would be fine.

Patrick went to sleep thirty minutes later, feeling happier than he had in months.


	3. Centuries

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Now this is something.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No beta this time, so all mistakes are mine (not that they aren't usually mine).
> 
> This took me so long to get up and I feel really bad about it, but hopefully almost 7,000 words makes up for it? Man, I just get so busy with school and writing other stuff. 
> 
> But this week has to be a Fall Out Boy because they're (hopefully) releasing new music on Thursday!

Patrick arrived at the studio almost an hour late the next day, but he couldn’t feel guilty, as he was still joyous about the previous night. He found Pete at the food table and his heart leaped when Pete gave him a warm smile.

“How did you get here on time?” Patrick asked, with a funny face. He grabbed a cinnamon roll and threw it up in the air and smoothly caught it. He didn’t let it show, but he was surprised at the catch.

“I didn’t sleep much to begin with,” Pete responded. Patrick contemplated comforting him somehow, but he didn’t look like he needed it.

“Hey, Patrick!” Gerard said as he showed up, slapping Patrick on the back a little too hard. “Thought you were sick or something,” he shrugged and grabbed a flimsy paper plate (he looked irritated at the material and put another plate underneath it). “Not much is going on today. We just need you and Halsey to practice your scenes together. She’s ready when you are,” he finished. A few seconds later he shrugged again and put the plates down, leaving to do something else.

Patrick rolled his shoulders back and Pete laughed. “He hit you kinda hard, didn’t he?” Pete asked. Patrick nodded.

“He hurt my back.” Pete laughed again, but his gaze never left Patrick when Patrick started to grab more food than the one cinnamon roll. Patrick really didn’t appreciate Pete staring.

“Aren’t you hot?” Pete eventually asked, however that was after Patrick started blushing. “I’m burning up.”

“Because I’m wearing a hoodie? Not really, I like it. Makes me feel more hidden.”

Pete rolled his eyes. “I can’t believe you manage to be a famous actor for how little you like the spotlight.”

“Yeah, I don’t know how I do it,” Patrick agreed. He pulled the sleeves over his hands. “I’m a little worried the hoodie is going to put me to sleep though. I’m really tired.” They small talked for a little longer and then Patrick told Pete he had to go practice with Halsey and Pete let him leave. The moment Patrick turned away from Pete, he felt empty and at least ten times more tired.

They weren’t even dating; that’s how bad his crush was.

The rest of the day Patrick didn’t get to say anything more to Pete. He didn’t have time to talk to him at lunch because he had “accidently” found a corner to take a nap in.

He got home and pulled off the hoodie, sloppily putting it on the back of his couch.

The next day at work Pete seemed distant. The first few times Patrick smiled at him and it wasn’t reciprocated, Patrick dismissed it as Pete simply not seeing. Patrick got scared when it was lunch and Pete seemed to _run away_ from Patrick. He couldn’t think of anything he could have done to chase Pete away like _that_.

Patrick was silently depressed the rest of the day, but he didn’t let anyone see it. He played his character the same as he always did and he stayed on his best manners. The only difference was he wished for Pete.

He got home that night and almost started crying. He turned on the TV to whatever channel was already on and curled in on himself.

He felt like he was back in high school, when his first crush denied him. He had gone home that day and locked himself in his room, even refusing to come out for dinner. After that, he moped around for months before his mom finally told him—to put it bluntly—get over it.

He hoped Pete didn’t have a bigger effect on him, like when he lost his first major boyfriend. That was awful.

Patrick stayed on the couch for hours before the local news came on and got him moving to change it. He never liked hearing about what murders and kidnaps happened in the city, a few blocks away from him. It always made him scared to leave his apartment the next day.

As Patrick was shifting to grab the remote from the other side of the couch, something white caught his eye. He forgot about the remote and went for that instead. He guessed it would be some kind of candy wrapper that needed to be thrown away, but instead he found it to be a folded-up note. He had no idea where it came from, and he carefully unfolded it.

_I’m a wimp and couldn’t say this to you personally so here’s a note. Do you like me? Check:_

Underneath that was two boxes, one that read yes and the other that read no. At the bottom of the note was Pete’s name written sloppier than the rest.

Patrick’s breath got caught in the back of his throat. He really did feel like he was in high school. If he got notes like this in high school, that is.

There was no way this note was actually from Pete. It was too perfect, too easy. Things like this didn’t happen to Patrick.

And assuming the note fell out of his hoodie, how did Pete get the note in it? Patrick kept the hoodie on the whole day.

Maybe he wrote the note in his sleep and that’s why Patrick didn’t remember; except, this definitely wasn’t his handwriting, nor would he ever make a ‘check yes or no’ for his crush, even in his sleep.

Patrick was suddenly pissed at Pete for doing this. He knew that Pete had ignored him just because he didn’t respond to this dumb note. Pete just didn’t have enough balls to ask him if he got the note or not? He doesn’t check his hoodie pockets after work, that’s not normal! Pete had no right to ignore him and Patrick knew it. Patrick intended to let Pete know it too.

Patrick contemplated writing an angry note back to Pete, but he didn’t want to end up cowardly in the same fashion. He’d have to tell him straight up to his face how he felt about Pete ignoring him.

He was too busy thinking about what he would say to Pete for the rest of the day that he skipped dinner and didn’t even notice until after his shower and he was tucked into bed. At that point he was so frustrated that he completely skipped it and figured he would get up early and actually eat a good breakfast.

Surprisingly, Patrick woke up the next morning happy. He wasn’t sure why he felt like everything was right and going great, especially with how angry he was just that night. He was excited to see Pete, even though he had planned on yelling at him today.  He didn’t _have_ to yell at Pete, know that he thought about it. Pete was scared to talk to him, which, now that Patrick thought about it, Pete did mention he has anxiety that fluctuates in intensity. Maybe it was bad yesterday, that’s not something Pete can help.

Maybe yelling at Pete isn’t a good idea, Patrick finally decided. Patrick has had his fair share of anxiety, _it happens_.

..Where did he put the note, though? Now that’s he decided he doesn’t want to yell at Pete, he should respond to him through the note. Maybe Pete would be smart enough to wear a jacket himself (Patrick couldn’t remember if he was wearing one yesterday).

He left his half-eaten breakfast and went to his couch, where he last remembered the note being. He didn’t see it directly on the cushions and he quickly checked in between them without feeling a thing. Did he move the note somewhere else without realizing it? He scanned the table and countertops without seeing anything. He didn’t have the time to go on a deep search so he instead got out a new piece of paper and redraw the yes and no boxes, making sure to neatly check the _yes_ one.  Underneath that he wrote:

_I’m a wimp too and couldn’t make the first move. I’m glad you like me because I know I like you._

He folded it and added Pete’s name on the outside; he put it next to his breakfast so as not to forget it.

He immediately started looking for Pete once he arrived at work. After a few minutes, he realized Pete wasn’t there. When he checked the time, he found out he had gotten there pretty early in his excitement, which made sense as to why Pete wasn’t there yet.

It was about ten minutes of constant checking before he saw Pete walk through the door, hidden in an oversized pullover hoodie. It was so perfect that Patrick knew he purposely wore the hoodie to make it easier for him.

As the day continued Patrick seriously wanted to know how Pete got the original note in to his hoodie. He continuously found out just how hard this was. He tried to do it while they were practicing, he tried to do it while Pete was eating his lunch, and he tried yet again as Pete was talking to one of the other actors. Every single time he failed and by the end of the day he was desperate. He knew there was no way to get it in to Pete’s hoodie and he had to use his last resort. He trailed behind Pete as he was going to leave and right before Pete exited the building he ran up to him.

“Here,” he said, quickly handing Pete the note before running from him.

Later that night Patrick got a text from Pete.

_Good to stop talking thru notes now?_

**They’re pretty stressful.**

_Ya_

 Patrick was a little thrown off by the short response, especially because Pete started the conversation. He couldn’t think of a response and after a few minutes he gave up and hoped that Pete would text him again.

Sure enough, five minutes after the last text, another one from Pete arrived.

_Would you like to go out to dinner? As a date?_

Patrick’s heart was racing and he locked his phone so he wouldn’t see the message again. Pete had seriously just asked him out on a date; Pete wanted to go out on a date with him! Patrick closed his eyes and tried to focus on getting the confidence to simply type back ‘yes’. He didn’t know why he was so anxious, all he had to do was type one word. He knew Pete liked him, Pete had asked him, and he was too old for this to be some type of dare. His phone buzzed in his hand and he took a deep breath before opening it.

_Tonight btw. totally okay if u don’t want to_

He wasn’t even thinking about how Pete must feel, being the one who asked. He must feel at least five times as anxious as Patrick felt and here Patrick was, leaving him hanging for almost ten minutes. He had to do it, he had to get it over with.

 **Where?** he sent back before sliding his phone across his kitchen table in a panic. He didn’t want to see Pete’s response right away—he wasn’t prepared for it. A few minutes after the initial buzz Patrick managed to grab his phone, wait another minute, then look at the text from Pete. His heart fluttering as he read it, he realized something good was coming out of the stupid movie.

Patrick met Pete two hours later, Patrick dressed in some of his more casual fancy clothes. He hadn’t bothered to wear a tux that was generally reserved for the red carpet, but he wasn’t about to go to a first date in jeans and a t-shirt, even though the restaurant Pete had sent him was casual.

He found Pete sitting in a booth in the back of the restaurant and he said a quick comment to the person seating and she let him through.

“Hey,” Pete greeted. Patrick returned the favor before looking out the window that was next to him.

“Is something wrong?” Pete asked as he saw Patrick’s upset expression.

“Do you think they would mind if I put the blinds down?”

“Why?”

“I can already feel the paparazzi. They have a knack for this kind of stuff.”

“You mean, they can just tell when you’re on a date?” Patrick nodded.

“I’m gonna close it and hope they don’t yell,” Patrick decided. He got on his knees on the seat and looked around before grabbing the strings and pulling the blinds close. A waitress watched him do it but said nothing, reassuring Patrick that he wouldn’t get yelled at.

“There we go. They can still get pictures, but they won’t be as good as ones,” Patrick said, satisfied.

“How have you managed to put up with the paparazzi for so long?” Patrick shrugged and opened up his menu. He felt like he was shaking, but when he looked at the menu in his hands it was completely stable. He hoped Pete felt as nervous as he did.

“After the first year I got used to it. The worst part was when I lost a lot of weight and was going to the gym a lot. The pap thought it would be amazing to take as many pictures of me as possible at the end when I was all sweaty. I hated seeing myself like that online after a few hours.”

“That sounds awful. You deserve some privacy.”

“The celebrity culture we live in doesn’t allow that,” Patrick said, feeling a little pretentious as he said it.

“I guess I’m going in to that, aren’t I? Occasionally in Chicago I’d have some random photographer take photos of me, but I never had to deal with real paparazzi.”

“Chicago?” Patrick asked, suddenly excited. Hearing Chicago immediately helped his anxiety.

“Yeah, I’m from Chicago.”

“So am I!” Patrick exclaimed. “I love Chicago. I want to move back some day. Probably when people are sick of me and I can retire.”

“Who knows when that will be,” Pete said. Patrick grinned at Pete, not entirely believing him. “I’m serious, Trick! You’re so talented and a natural at what you do. I’m kinda jealous.”

“I wouldn’t be jealous of me.” Bad thing to say. He was ruining the date. Pete was going to pity him now. Stupid, Patrick, stupid!

“Why not?”

_Say something funny and not serious!_

“Well, for starters, I am not a morning person as you learned. Sports? Not my thing. I don’t even know how to throw a football.” Pete cut him off with a laugh.

“I can teach you!” he said.

How did Pete do that? How did he manage to keep the mood positive all the time?

Patrick was about to reply with something about how he didn’t care to learn, but the twinkle in Pete’s eye made him rethink that decision.

“Some other time,” he responded. At that point he was so infatuated he would have done anything for Pete, including compete in an actual NFL game. He would tragically lose, but he’d do it. For now all he had to do was focus on being less nervous.

The paparazzi finally showed up right as they got their food and Patrick’s mood dampened only slightly. Pete stayed bright and excited and Patrick fed from him.

“I read somewhere that flipping off the paparazzi will make them unable to use the pictures. Do you know if that’s true?” Pete asked after about twenty minutes of the paparazzi sitting there and occasionally taking a picture. Patrick was more annoyed the longer they stayed, but he kept it hidden for Pete.

Patrick swallowed his bite of food and responded, “yes, but it gets exhausting after a while. Your arm gets tired.”

“I want to try it,” Pete said with a childish smile.

“Go for it, it won’t hurt me any. Although, I would recommend waiting until we leave. That’s when they’ll try to get the real pictures.”

“Like the ‘are we dating’ or ‘Patrick Stump meeting with stranger’ pictures?”

“Both, depends on the magazine. Still a lot of fun to ruin.”

“I’m gonna believe you on that.” Pete stared quietly at the pap for a few seconds before he looked back at Patrick, who raised his eyebrows in question.

“I just never realized how many there were. I always figured there was one or two that came, not almost twenty.”

“Is that what you were doing? Counting them?”

“Yeah.” Pete still look astonished and it was entertaining to Patrick.

“I try not to count them, I usually don’t want to know.”

“Oh, sorry,” Pete said quietly.

“For what? You didn’t do anything! I don’t care if you count them and tell me,” Patrick quickly said. Pete still looked a little upset.  “Pete, I promise. I’m not mad or anything. It’s a new experience for you, you can talk about it however you want.”

“It is pretty interesting,” Pete said. He sighed and rubbed the back of his head, averting his eyes for only a quick second. “I’m sorry, Trick. I haven’t been on a good date in a long time, and I can have anxiety issues. Something simple like that and I feel like I’ve completely fucked up. I just don’t want to fuck this up. It already took all my courage just to ask you out, and I don’t want the first date to end in a mess.”

Patrick stared at Pete for a minute, his gears turning to think up a proper response. He was terrified of fucking it up himself, and yet he couldn’t think of a good response. Eventually he took Pete’s hand that was laid on the table in his own hand and gave him a soft smile. “I don’t think you can fuck it up quite yet, Pete,” he softly said.

Pete stared at his hands, eyes widening in shock. Patrick had grabbed his hand. When was the last time someone made the first move? Did this mean Patrick was going to initiate the first kiss? Wait, did this mean they’ll have a first kiss? It’s funny how one simple touch from Patrick could immediately ease Pete’s anxiety significantly. He couldn’t remember the last time he dated someone who could do that.

“I think our food is getting cold,” Patrick joked. Pete suddenly got scared that Patrick was going to let go, but his grip remained steady.

“I kinda forgot about it,” Pete said. Both looked at their plates and then looked back at each other, and they both decided at the same time to let go. Pete felt cold immediately afterwards but ignored the feeling.

“I’ve never had this type of pasta before,” Patrick said. The tone in his voice showed disappointment and Pete could tell Patrick felt the same about letting go, but he didn’t mention it. Instead he gave an awfully witty response and picked up his own silverware.

 

Pete was right, Patrick was the one to initiate the first kiss. It didn’t happen on the first date, though. It happened on the third date. According to media, the third date is the one where sex was supposed to happen, but for them a kiss was way better than sex. It was soft, ardent, breathtaking, and so much more than Pete could only hope to describe. The taste of Patrick lingered on his lips for days afterwards and often he touched his lips hoping to re-create the spark. When Patrick kissed him, it was as if… as if Pete was complete. As if all his problems were gone because he had this one solution right in front of him, this one solution that was holding him, that was.. there.

Pete had never felt better than when Patrick was holding him, and his slightly chapped lips were against ones so soft it had almost seemed like a sin to taint them. Pete wouldn’t know if he would ever feel more complete.

They were the top story the next day. Patrick woke up with an email from his PR team and a text from Pete apologizing.

Patrick had forgot about the paparazzi. Patrick had kissed Pete in a very open and very public area. Of course he had. Of course the paparazzi knew about it. Of course his newly developing love life was all over the media already. And of course Pete felt the need to apologize for it. They always did. They always thought it was their fault. It was always his fault.

Patrick sent a quick reply to his PR team and Pete and ignored every single media outlet there was, including his own social media. He went through his whole morning thinking that maybe Pete wasn’t worth it, maybe none of it was worth it. He didn’t need a relationship to be happy, maybe it was best to just focus on his career for even longer. Maybe a relationship would never be worth it, the media was so fucking awful. They never failed to ruin his relationship, because they always felt like his relationship was their relationship.

The paparazzi that chased him from his apartment to the studio only reinforced his thoughts.

“Who is that you’re dating, Patrick?” “We knew those were dates!” “Tell us more!” “How was the kiss?” were only a few things thrown his way that he all managed to ignore. Luckily, he was safe once he got into the studio.

Pete greeted him quickly and pulled him aside from the rest of the crew.

“Are you okay? What are we going to do?” he asked. Patrick was about to burst and tell Pete that none of it was worth it and maybe they should just break off, but Pete was standing less than a foot away and Patrick could smell his cologne and feel the warmth that he offered and he fell into Pete.

Yeah, the paparazzi were horrible.

But Pete was worth it.

“We deal with it. I’ll teach you how to ignore them during lunch. I don’t want to give up on this. Not yet, at least,” he mumbled into Pete’s shoulder.

“I wouldn’t let the paparazzi break us up anyway,” Pete said.  

Pete caught on quickly on how to handle paparazzi much to Patrick’s luck. It was pretty simple though, just don’t answer them no matter how nice they seem, and ignore them as they take photos. “New celebrities usually make the mistake of believing them to be harmless, but it’s always the opposite. They usually have no morals and will twist anything that they get out of you to meet their standards and the public will always believe them. Talk shows are the best to get any type of word out. Just let them take photos of you walking and sell to Tumblr blogs or something. No matter what they try to provoke you with, remember one thing: it’s not worth it. They’re deceitful pests.”

“I’m guessing you’ve had some bad experiences with the paparazzi?” Pete said before promptly biting his tongue, realizing that that probably wasn’t the best thing to say.

Patrick looked at Pete in surprise, then ducked down and scratched the back of his head. “Yeah, well, my last major relationship was seriously damaged by them. I freaked out when I realized I kissed you where they could see us this morning. I have no idea how my PR team is going to handle this. I may tell them to just leave it to me.”

“Wait, did you think I’d leave just because the internet knows we kissed?”

“No, of course not! The internet tends to put a strain on relationships and I was trying to avoid that so early in the relationship, that’s what I mean.”

“Oh.”

 

Patrick invited Pete to his apartment after work that day, and Pete giddily accepted. The moment they left the studio, the press surrounded them. Patrick grabbed Pete’s hand just to fuck with them, and they all went wild.

“Don’t say a word,” Patrick said under his breath. Pete returned with a subtle nod.

They made it with no incidents and Patrick’s anxiety was relieved, even though he didn’t know he even had it in the first place.

In the elevator ride up, Patrick realized just how much Pete was a touchy-feely type of person. He kept their hands together, and leaned into him for no reason. And even when Patrick was unlocking his apartment door, Pete refused to not touch him. Except Pete’s like an excited puppy, and when he saw Patrick’s apartment, he ran in and left Patrick in the doorway. Patrick closed the door behind him.

“Holy shit, dude, this apartment is huge,” Pete said, his voice filled with pure astonishment. Patrick laughed, staring at Pete’s face.

“It’s really not.”

 “What are you talking about? This place is fucking gigantic!” He threw his arms out.

Pete was referring to Patrick’s simple, two bedroom two bath apartment. It was modern and had a fairly sized kitchen and living room.  It looked larger than it was because of the high ceilings and large windows with curtains that were rarely ever closed. It also didn’t help Patrick owned little furniture.

“Wow,” Pete said a few minutes later after he got his fill of looking around. By that time Patrick was at his kitchen counter looking through his mail and had found nothing of importance, minus a bill that he always forgot to make it so it paid automatically online. He let out a chuckle and put his mail down, throwing away the few pieces that had absolutely no value, like the Bass Pro Shop magazine that he was sent just because it was filed under the old residents of his apartment.

“I’ve been living in a studio apartment for so long, it’s just kinda surprising to see an apartment with a separate room for the bathroom,” Pete explained.

“I hated my studio apartment. It was not worth it to live in the city. My toilet would break every other day.” Pete smiled at him. He made his way to the couch and sat down, an expression of pure bliss filling his face.

“Okay, this couch is the high light of my year,” he said slowly.

“What, not dating me?”

Pete looked up to find Patrick now resided next to him, and he stared at him. His heart was beating fast and he couldn’t think of a coherent thought, but Patrick had an unbroken smile on his face.

“Dating?” he finally said through the lump in his throat.

“Dating,” Patrick reassured.

“Dating!” Patrick started to laugh, but Pete lunged himself at him and toppled him off the couch. He started kissing his cheeks crazily, and Patrick was laughing uncontrollably. Pete sealed him off with a deep kiss on the mouth, and Patrick grinned throughout the whole thing.

The kiss lasted as long as both could take it. It was peaceful, just their lips together, and their hands on each other.

One word popped in Patrick’s head.

Love.

Patrick was the first to break off, and the interruption of the word caused a panic in his head, but Pete rolled off him and laughed again and Patrick couldn’t feel scared much longer.

“Movie?” he offered. Pete nodded his head.

“I don’t want a romantic comedy, though,” Pete said.

“As long as it’s not action, we’re good.”

 

Pete fell asleep cuddled up in Patrick’s lap, Patrick’s hand carded through his hair. The light from the TV screen was reflecting off Pete’s eyelashes and his mouth was opened, snoring only slightly. He looked like an extremely comfortable angel asleep like that. Patrick found the way his eyes fluttered every few minutes a lot more interesting than the movie that had gotten boring by the first five minutes.

Patrick was rushing things, he could tell. There was no reason for love to pop in his head. It was way too early; Pete wouldn’t feel the same. There was no way. Pete may be comfortable enough already to fall asleep on him, but Pete just seemed like a trusting person and people tended to trust Patrick easily. It didn’t mean anything. It definitely didn’t mean love.

Except love felt so right. It didn’t feel misplaced at all, in fact it felt like Patrick had just learned the definition of what love was. He had never wanted to stare at someone when they slept before. He had never willingly let someone sleep on him for so long that his legs were hurting. He just knew he was in love already.

Except there was no way Pete felt the same.

 

Three days after the initial incident with the media, Patrick felt confident enough to check his social media. He felt like Twitter was his safest option, considering he didn’t have to reply to any of the people tweeting at him. A lot of people did, too. Most of the tweets consisted of _@patrickstump what?!?!?!?!_ along with a picture of him and Pete kissing. He couldn’t help but smirk at each tweet.

He found Pete at the buffet at work and he put his arms around his back, forcing Pete to turn around and kiss him.

“It’s weird to see you this happy, Patrick,” Pete said right after breaking the kiss. Patrick beamed back at him.

“You taste like sausage.”

“You caught me while I was eating it,” Pete laughed.

“I was checking my Twitter this morning, and everyone’s surprise made me feel really happy. I can’t explain it.”

“Did you respond to any?” Patrick let go of Pete and took a step back. Pete looked a bit disappointed, but he didn’t say anything.

“Not yet.”

“You should! Like, right now.”

“You really think I should?”

“Yeah! Let your fans know what’s going on,” Pete said.

“I’m pretty sure they have an idea. I mean, we did go in to the same building yesterday.”

“Have they already posted those pictures?”

“Pete,” Patrick said in a monotone voice. “Do me a favor and Google my name.”

Pete took out his phone and unlocked it before saying, “I’m gonna assume that is a yes.” Patrick stayed quiet while Pete typed something.

“Oh, wow… That’s a.. lot,” Pete said, stupefied. “Why do people care this much?”

Patrick shrugged. “I have no idea why.” Pete was silent for a while before he smiled and showed his phone to Patrick.

“This one is my favorite,” he cheerfully stated. The picture was from yesterday and it was right after Patrick had grabbed Pete’s hand and he had a shit-eating grin on his face, while Pete looked slightly surprised.

“That’s a good one,” Patrick said warmly. “So, I should tweet my fans?” Pete nodded in response, so Patrick asked him to send that picture to him.

“I can’t believe I’m doing this,” he mumbled as he attached the picture to the end of his tweet.

“I can’t believe I got you to do this.” Patrick glared at him and Pete was scared he’d back out for a quick second, but the glare was short-lived and he pressed ‘tweet’ on his phone.

“There, done.” Patrick was grabbed quickly and his phone flew from his hands, but his attention was quickly relocated to Pete’s lips. They were chapped, and Patrick thought about offering Pete his chap stick, but they were soon pulled out of their lull by various cat calls coming from around the studio. Patrick pulled back and blushed at Pete before briskly walking to his phone and then makeup.

An hour later, they had a scene to film together. It was Pete’s first official scene to film, and Patrick was nervous for him. He remembered the scene he first filmed in a movie. He only had a few lines, but he messed up every one of them and everyone was so frustrated with him at the end that they basically kicked him from the set.

Patrick had his hands behind his back and he was pacing around while occasionally looking up to see Halsey chuckle at him. He wasn’t sure what she found entertaining, but he put up with it. Pete showed up twenty minutes after him and stopped him straight in his tracks.

He was dressed differently.

 _Of course he’s dressed differently, he’s dressed like his character,_ Patrick thought, mentally scolding himself. Except he looked so good. He was wearing a light green button down shirt and loose jeans, but what was getting Patrick was his ruffled hair with a pair of sunglass placed carefully on it. The tip of Pete’s hair had been blonde ever since Patrick met him, but something about it being completely mixed together and not brushed out with a comb like Pete normally did really got Patrick excited.

Pete swaggered to the set in character, reminding Patrick that he should get in character himself. Gerard rushed out right as Pete arrived, standing probably too close to Patrick. Probably.

Gerard clapped his hands together. “Okay, let’s do this! Both of you, get on the bar stools next to each other. Perfect! Patrick, you’ll stay on the whole scene. Pete, when you get off your stool I need you to be pretty close to Patrick. I don’t think you need a marker, but we’re willing to do it if we need to. Both of you ready?”

Patrick looked at Pete before nodding his head.

“Alright, go!”

Just like that, Patrick was Mark and Pete was Aidan.

Aidan took his beer and chugged it down, and then slammed it on the counter so hard it almost broke. Mark flinched.

“Mark, dude, you need to get back out there!” Aidan slurred out. He pulled the bartender back over and ordered something with more alcohol than beer, but he really didn’t need any more alcohol.

“And you, Aidan, need to stop drinking,” Mark retorted. When his alcohol arrived, Mark grabbed it before Aidan could with a smirk.

“Stop being a buzzkill,” Aidan whined. Mark placed the alcohol on the other side of him, which Aidan tried to reach like a baby would. Soon, Aidan got mad.

“You know what, Mark, it isn’t my fault you can’t get a chick,” he shot at Mark. He stood up, making sure his knees were touching Mark’s like Gerard had wanted. “It’s not as hard as you seem to think it is. Look, I’ll go get a girl right now.” He sauntered off, almost falling in his drunken state.

Mark sighed and picked up Aidan’s drink, sniffing it. He grimaced and put the drink back down. He then sighed again and turned to look at Aidan, who had somehow already found a girl to flirt with. He started tapping his foot, eager to see Aidan be rejected by her. Typical to his personality though, Aidan was leaving a few minutes later with the girl and sending a wink to Mark.

“Cut!” Gerard yelled. “That was great. But I just want some more, for variation purposes.”

They filmed the scene a few times and each time Pete walked out of the shot with the actress who he picked up from the bar, Patrick felt like he was stabbed in the chest. He knew it was fake and Pete was acting, that Pete was still dating him, and he had no explanation as to why it hurt.

He cared about Pete a lot already and deep inside he was so terrified of losing him like all his other relationships that he knew it was easier to bury the feelings than to face them at the surface. Seeing Pete with a girl was forcing him to see something he didn’t want to see. “Whatever,” he mumbled as he forced it back down.

The days got colder and Patrick and Pete had less scenes to film as the weeks went by. Two weeks before filming was over, they filmed their last scene together. Patrick had dreaded the day it came. After this, Pete wasn’t required to come to set anymore and Patrick was scared they would lose the connection they had without seeing each other every day. He hoped their relationship was stronger than that, but the doubt was always scratching at the back of his mind.

He kept the doubts to himself and the night before their final scene, Patrick was tracing his finger on Pete’s chest while Pete had his arm wrapped around Patrick, and Pete’s eyes were constantly drooping down but he wasn’t falling asleep.

Patrick was too caught in his thoughts to fall asleep. He bit his lip and looked up at Pete.

 _I want to dance,_ he thought.

Pete stared at him with glazed over eyes and Patrick was about to dismiss his thoughts before Pete asked him if something was wrong.

“No…,” he started slowly.

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, it’s just… I want to dance.”

“Dance?”

“Yeah,” Patrick repeated. He locked eyes with Pete and bit his lip again.

“What time is it?”

“Midnight.” Patrick was pulling back from Pete as he expected Pete to decline the offer and tell him to go to sleep, but Pete agreed to instead and Patrick pulled back in surprise.

“Really?” he asked.

“It sounds fun,” Pete said. He got up and stretched out, before walking out of the bedroom. 

“We’re going to dance in our underwear?” Patrick followed him out, a bit self-conscious to be walking out in just his boxers, but he reminded himself that it was Pete he was with. He loved and trusted Pete. And Pete trusted him, at least.

“Why not?”

Neither turned on the lights as they passed them and Patrick met Pete in the middle of the living room. Pete put his arms around Patrick’s shoulders and gave him a tender kiss before resting his forehead on his boyfriend’s. He took simple steps back and forth, in a small circle. Patrick closed his eyes and bathed in the serene moment. The lack of lights made it so much better, as the only thing to bathe them was the city lights from the open curtain.

A few minutes of silence passed by before Patrick started softly singing.

“ _Tell the angels no, I don't want to leave my baby alone_

_I don't want nobody else to hold you_

_That's a chance I'll take_

_Baby I'll stay, Heaven can wait_

_No, if the angels took me from this earth_

_I would tell them bring me back to her_

_It's a chance I'll take, maybe I'll stay_

_Heaven can wait._ ”

Patrick paused and pulled his hands up Pete’s back until they were just under his shoulder blades. Pete looked at Patrick’s face before locking his eyes with him.

“Why did you stop singing?” Pete asked. Patrick realized at that moment as he saw the fascination on Pete’s face that he had never sang in front of him before. Patrick looked down and hoped that Pete couldn’t see the blush spreading across his cheeks.

“You want me to continue?” Pete stopped moving his feet and Patrick got scared that he had somehow ruined something.

“Of course I do! You’re really good, dude!” Pete exclaimed, smiling the whole time. He started swaying again, and Patrick grinned before continuing the song.

“ _Just leave us alone, leave us alone_

 _Please leave us alone,_ ” he finished slowly and softly. Pete wasn’t moving as fast, but he had a soft smile on and his eyes were closed in such an innocent way. Patrick enjoyed the moment, then moved closer to him and rested his chin in between his neck and shoulder. Both were quiet for a while, taking their side steps and swaying back and forth. Patrick was starting to fall asleep when Pete spoke up.

“I love you,” he whispered. Patrick’s eyes shot open and he prevented himself from gripping onto Pete’s bare back. Pete loved him too? Pete loved him too! Pete loved him! He loved Pete! And Pete loved him!

“..I love you too,” he said back after a moment of hesitation from his excitement. Pete let go, which caused Patrick to scoot back.

“It seems so early, but I really do, Trick. You’ve made me happier than I have in years and I can’t believe this actually happened to me. I don’t want to leave you,” Pete elaborated. He looked into Patrick’s wide eyes. They were dilated and Pete was hoping it was because of him, but he knew it was just because of the lack of lighting.

Patrick took Pete’s lips into his in a slow, warm kiss that filled Pete up with butterflies. Pete could feel Patrick’s warm breath on his upper lip, and he closed his eyes in order to seriously enjoy it. He wrapped his arms around his waist, and everything… Everything was perfect.

When Patrick let go, Pete was cold. He was close to shivering and he was tempted to jump onto Patrick for his warmth.

“Sleep?” Patrick offered. Pete gratefully nodded. He ran to the bed and hopped in and then patiently waited for Patrick to get settled before he pulled him close and wrapped his arms around him.

“I love you,” Patrick whispered. Pete’s response was so sleepily-quiet that Patrick barely heard it.

“I’ll always love you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Them dancing totally wasn't inspired by the lines "'Cause there we are again in the middle of the night.  
> We're dancing around the kitchen in the refrigerator light  
> Down the stairs, I was there, I remember it all too well, yeah." from Taylor Swift's All Too Well. Nope, not at all. 
> 
> (Don't worry, this story won't have the same ending as that song.)


	4. XO

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They're so happy with each other, they can't even remember what life was like beforehand. They want it to stay that way. And it will. Hopefully.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Remember how I said I'm bad at updating? This took even longer because I'm writing other things and I had to add more to this chapter. But, again, 8k words should make up for it.
> 
> (BTW, this chapter has porn. It is not dire to the plot and can be skipped if you want to.)

“It’s forty degrees outside so I recommend you bundle up!” Pete shouted to Patrick in the shower.

“How about I just don’t leave the shower?” Patrick yelled back. He faintly heard Pete laugh and walk away, which he knew was a no.

Despite the short time they had been dating, Pete had somehow managed to get quite a few of his clothes into Patrick’s apartment. He had been spending the night over more and more and the paparazzi were starting to get bored with the cameos of the two leaving the apartment building. Patrick was relieved, but Pete seemed a bit upset at the lack of attention.

“Don’t worry, they’ll come back eventually,” Patrick jokingly said to Pete as they left that day, hand in hand. Pete smiled at him as he felt his phone buzz in his pocket. He struggled to get it out due to the cold, but he eventually succeeded and turned on the screen to find a message from Brendon.

_Wanna go out tonight?_

Pete let go of Patrick’s hand and explained to him by pointing at his phone.

**Yea what time?**

_8_

Pete tucked his phone back in his pocket.

When they walked on to set together, the director immediately gave Pete a pat on the back.

“Last scene for you!” he enthusiastically said. “Let’s get both of you dressed up quickly so we can get it over with and film some more things today. Deadline is fastly approaching.” He walked off towards the cameramen and Pete and Patrick made their way towards makeup and wardrobe.

They got released at the same time and the director was happy to see them coming.

“Both of you get on the couch and pick up the beers on the coffee table,” he directed. They did as directed and got settled on to the couch.

“This thing is comfy,” Pete whispered and Patrick chuckled.

“You guys ready?” Patrick held his thumb up. “Action!”

“So, wait, what’s going on?” Pete, as Adain, asked. Patrick, as Mark, sighed and put his beer bottle on the coffee table.

“I don’t know, Adain. Everything she does is amazing and she’s wonderful and so funny and smart, oh my god she’s smart, and I don’t know.” He put his hands on his face and rubbed down. “I don’t know.”

“She’s really that great, huh? She must be, this is the first time we’ve hung out in months,” Adian responded. Mark shot him a pointed look and Adain smiled.

“Look, Mark, have you ever thought that, possibly, you’re in love?” Mark stared at him and Patrick started bobbing his leg for extra effect.

“Love?” Adain nodded. “I mean, possibly, I don’t know, I didn’t think about it before.”

Adain shrugged and drank some of his beer as Mark looked down.

“You really think it could be love?” he quietly said.

“If I know you as well as I think I do, then, yes, love.”

“Love,” Mark repeated, even more quietly. There was a pause as he contemplated it but then he looked at Adain with a large grin and nodded. “I’m in love with her.” The sparkle that was in Mark’s eye was more than just the character. Patrick reciprocated and he hoped Pete would be able to tell.

When Pete was smiling even after the director shouted cut, Patrick knew he understood.

“That was great, guys! Let’s just do it one more time to make sure we’ve got it,” Gerard told them.

 

“Are you going to leave?” Patrick asked once they finished filming the second time.

“Nah,” Pete responded with a wave of his hand. “I’ll stick around for the day. Doubt anyone would mind. Do you know how longer you have for filming?”

“I think about a week and a half,” Patrick answered after he thought about it for a while.

“Longer than I thought.”

“Not too bad. What are you going to do?”

“I don’t know. My agent is going to get me auditions, so I guess there’s that. Who knows how long before I get another role though,” Pete finished after Patrick had already shut the door for his dressing room. He came out less than a minute later in a different outfit.

“I think they’re making Halsey and I do promotion after this, maybe you. Although I would think just the cameo shots of us have gotten this movie enough attention.”

“So would I.”

After the day was done, Pete reluctantly went to his studio apartment. He knew he had no clean clothes at Patrick’s apartment and he needed to go back, but he seriously dreaded his apartment now. Patrick’s was so much more like home.

Pete went to the bar a bit early and waited for Brendon. He didn’t want to stay in that cramped apartment any longer, and he figured he could text Patrick until Brendon arrived.

Brendon sat down at Pete’s booth with a beer already in hand.

“Been a while,” Brendon said. Pete laughed, Brendon’s words reminding him of his line earlier.

“Yeah, it has been. To be fair, it wasn’t all Patrick’s fault. I was also really busy filming.”

“Oh, yeah! How did that go?”

“I finished today.”

“Dude, awesome! When does the movie come out? And am I getting invited to the premiere? I better be getting invited to the premiere.”

“Few months. Won’t Sarah be jealous?” Pete said with a smirk.

“Probably, but she isn’t best friends with you now, is she?”

Pete laughed. “True,” he said. After a few seconds he added, “What’s going on with you, Brendon?”

“Other than missing you? Hanging with Sarah. I’ve been practicing the drums more, I think Sarah is upset with how loud and constant they are.

“Oh, and Sarah’s pregnant.”

Pete almost spat out his drink. “What?!” he yelled, at the loudest he could get without drawing attention.

“Yup. Almost two months now.”

“And I’m just hearing about it?! I just started dating Patrick a month ago, I could have known this sooner!”

“We weren’t really telling anyone.”

“But a baby?!”

Brendon nodded enthuastically. “I’m gonna be a father, Pete.”

“What the hell? What happened.”

“Well, I don’t know if you know this, but it usually happens with a vag-”

“Nope, stop right there,” Pete interrupted. “I know how to make kids. I just realized how old I am and how _behind_ I am.”

“What do you mean behind? You and Patrick could adopt.”

Pete paused and stared next to Brendon. Brendon’s eyebrows furrowed and he looked behind him only to find nothing.

“Hey, Pete,” he said, waving his hand in front of him.

“You think Patrick and I are going to have kids?”

Brendon shrugged. “I mean, it seems so. You guys really like each other. But what do I know? I haven’t even met Patrick yet.”

“We, uh,” Pete scratched the back of his head and averted his eyes, “we told each other we love each other last night.”

“Wait, already? It’s so soon!”

“Yeah, I know, but it felt so natural, Brendon. It was midnight, we were dancing, he was singing, and it kind of slipped out. Not that I regret it, and he did say it back, I’m just scared it ruined something.”

“Did he seem weird this morning?”

Pete shook his head.

“Then I doubt it ruined anything,” Brendon softly said.

“You’re probably right, I just have the anxiety nagging at me. I mean, we haven’t even slept together yet.”

Brendon thought about it before answering with, “do you have any idea why?”

“Not really. We’ve made out and stuff. I really don’t think he’s self-conscious. It’s a possibility, but he’ll sleep without his shirt. It just hasn’t escalated to that point.”

“It was a few months before Sarah and I slept together, but it was definitely before the first ‘I love you.’”

“I know. I’ve never said ‘I love you’ before sleeping with someone. It’s making me feel like I’m doing something wrong. But, then again, we’re both in our thirties. It’s not like sex is a huge thing in our life anymore.”

“I find it odd how you’re practically living with him and you haven’t slept with him.”

“Okay, that habit started because Patrick didn’t want to deal with the media trying to figure out why I’m leaving at 10 even though we’re dating.”

“Is it really that bad?”

Pete nodded. “It doesn’t bug me too much, but Trick hates it and I really don’t blame him. The flashes are blinding.  You know I’ve had one person follow me from the gym? I’m not even that famous but since I’m dating someone who is famous I get pictures taken of me after the gym. I haven’t even figured out where the picture ended up.”

Brendon laughed. “Being a celebrity is hard.”

“Dating a celebrity is hard. Have you seen some of the pictures they got when we first started dated?”

“Yeah, I saw them on magazine covers.”

“We were on the front of a magazine?”

“No, but you guys were on the corner of one. ‘Patrick Stump has new boy toy!’”

“Are you serious?” Brendon nodded and Pete groaned. “Media’s ridiculous.”

Before either could say another thing, Pete’s phone went off, making the whole table vibrate. He looked at the screen quickly to find a text from Patrick.

_I’m at the hospital._

Pete’s eyes went wide and he started trembling as he sent something back.

**Where I’ll come for u**

“Is something wrong?” Brendon asked. Pete looked up and tapped at his phone screen to keep sane.

“He’s in the hospital,” he responded.

“Who?”

“Patrick.”

“Is he okay?”

“I don’t know.” Pete bit his lip and gazed at his phone so hard that his eyes were completely out of focus when the next text from Patrick showed up.

**Methodist. I’m fine. Just want you to know.**

_Im coming_

“Can I have a ride to Methodist?”

Brendon grabbed his jacket and got up from the booth while Pete put a ten on the table to make sure the bill was settled.

 

The mid-day traffic was brutal. Patrick kept reassuring Pete that he was fine, but Pete’s mind was still yelling at him and he felt like his curled toes were going to tear a whole in his shoes. He didn’t know what happened to Patrick and it was killing him.

When Brendon finally pulled into the hospital parking lot, Pete had forgotten how to unbuckle his seatbelt. He was frozen and felt hopeless.

“Do you want me to come in with you?” Brendon asked. Pete snapped out of his trance and agreed, slowly remembering how to unbuckle his seatbelt.

“Yes,” he repeated.

“Do you know his room?” Pete shook his head. “I’ll ask the front for you,” Brendon offered.

“Thank you.”

Soon enough they were riding in the elevator up to Patrick’s room. Brendon had his arm around Pete’s shoulder and Pete honestly couldn’t tell if it was comforting him or not. It wasn’t not helping so he put up with. People filed out of the elevator at each stop and Pete took a good look at every one leaving to try and figure out why they were at the hospital. Was it for themselves? Family member? Maybe a boyfriend like him. It was the only thing that distracted him enough to make the tears go away. He didn’t want Patrick to know he was that worried.

Patrick was sitting on an examination bed when Pete got in. Pete told himself he would be calm, but instead he ran to Patrick and gave him a hug that was hopefully not too hard.

“What happened?” he whispered into Patrick’s neck. He tried to blink his tears back before pulling away.

“Someone wasn’t having me being gay now that we were ‘rubbing it in his face’ and he attacked me. I’m really fine, Pete. I only have some bruises and he somehow managed to break my pinky finger. I’m good. They scanned me all up and I am still healthy. Don’t worry,” Patrick explained.

“Oh my god, Patrick, why don’t you have a body guard? Did it just never occur to you?”

“Hey, it never occurred to you before either.”

“Patrick!” Pete hugged him again and Patrick wrapped his own arms around him. “I’m just glad it wasn’t worse.”

“So am I.” Patrick stopped being distracted from Pete and noticed Brendon, who was loitering at the door. “Who’s this?” he asked.

“Oh, yeah.” Pete let go of Patrick for good and motioned for Brendon to come closer. “This is Brendon, my best friend. Brendon, you obviously know Patrick.”

Brendon held out his hand before Patrick pointed at his broken finger and Brendon realized his mistake and held out his opposite hand. Patrick gave him a firm shake.

“Love the movies, dude,” Brendon greeted. Patrick smiled. He was in a surprisingly good mood for someone who was in the hospital.

“Thanks. Wish we could have met before I was in the hospital,” Patrick responded, giving a glare at Pete.

“We were filming!” Pete defended. He already felt better about Patrick being in the hospital. That was how Patrick worked though. He really made Pete feel better no matter what. He had no idea how he was able to do it.

“Come on, Pete, is that really an excuse?” Brendon joked, elbowing him softly.

“Yeah, come on, Pete,” Patrick agreed.

“This isn’t fair, you guys can’t team up on me.”

“Who said?” Patrick said, beating Brendon to it.

“The rules.”

“There’s no rules in being a boyfriend. I didn’t get a handbook. Well, I don’t think so.” Patrick faked thinking and Pete smacked him, making him laugh.

“Am I good to interrupt?” the doctor asked, walking in. She smiled at Pete and Brendon as she made her way to Patrick. Pete scooted out of the way.

“Okay, Patrick, you’re good to go. Make sure not to move your pinky much and come back in a week so we can make sure it’s healing. Sound good?”

Patrick nodded and hopped off the doctor table. “Thanks, Dr. Camper.” She nodded back and smiled at Patrick before exiting.

“She set my arm when I broke it a few years back,” Patrick said.

“Guessing she knows your bones,” Pete said.

“Only the broken ones.”

“Do you guys want me to drive you?” Brendon interrupted from the doorway. He was playing with his keys. “Sarah wants me to get home.”

“Did you tell her we’re at the hospital?” Pete said.

“I felt like she’d get too worried.”

“I just need to schedule the next appointment then a ride would be greatly appreciated,” Patrick said.

~

After that accident, Patrick knew he needed a body guard. He honestly didn’t know how he got away without one for so long. Pete was incessant on finding the right person who he could trust, despite the decision actually being Patrick’s. They looked for a few days until they found one that Pete liked and Patrick had no complaints about. After a quick interview, Andy Hurley was hired to be Patrick’s body guard.

~

Weeks went by quickly and Patrick wrapped up his scenes for the movie (with his broken pinky rushed in to the story), he got the cast off with a finger that felt brand new, he got along with Andy Hurley, and his love for Pete had yet to fade a bit.

Needless to say, he felt pretty great. So great that he didn’t even complain about the press tour coming up. Given, it helped that the tour was less than a week, but normally that was enough to completely drain him of what he had. He hated answering the same questions over and over, but at least he had Pete this time. He expected Pete to do most of the talking for him, even if Patrick was more of a lead than Pete. It would also be nice to go somewhere with Pete.

Because the movie was pretty low budget, there wasn’t a big press tour. All it was was Patrick, Pete, Gerard, and Halsey doing a few interviews, but they did have to fly to LA. Pete and Patrick sat together on the plane, while Pete continuously shook his leg in excitement. If it had been any other person, Patrick would have been irritated, but since it was Pete and he could never get enough of Pete, he watched Pete shift around with a smile.

Pete noticed Patrick looking, but didn’t notice the smile. He frowned and tried to sit still with a quick apology, but Patrick laughed.

“It’s cute,” he said. “I don’t think I’ve ever been that excited for interviews.” 

Pete playfully shoved his shoulder into Patrick. “I have more charisma than you.”

“You’re better than me,” Patrick said, shoving Pete back with a giant smile. His heart swelled in his chest as Pete chuckled to accept the compliment and Patrick knew the doting love that was surely painting his face was the only thing holding Pete back from yelling at him for the self-deprecating joke.

They were both completely and hopelessly in love with each other, there was no ruining it, not even the two people very obviously taking pictures of them at the front of the plane. Patrick couldn’t find it in himself to care or even point it out to Pete, who would probably get mad for Patrick’s sake.

Patrick couldn’t believe the paparazzi had yet to strain his and Pete’s relationship as the paparazzi were everywhere, all the time. It irritated Patrick to no end, but Pete always managed to smile at him and pull him from whatever fantasy he had fallen in to.

They landed close to midnight and Patrick was grumpy and ready to go to the hotel room and sleep, but Gerard continued to be jumpy and excited on the taxi ride to their hotel. He continuously reminded everyone what time they needed to be down in the hotel lobby in the morning and after the fifth time of hearing five AM, Patrick would have punched him if Pete wasn’t holding his hand.

Patrick and Pete were sharing a hotel room, per request, and when they finally entered their room, Patrick fell onto the bed with a happy sigh. 

Pete practically fell onto him and he lifted himself above Patrick and gave him a slow and sweet kiss. He pulled back, both of their eyes shut, but they felt like they were laying in whatever the hell dreams were made of. Patrick slowly opened his eyes, eyelashes fluttering and cheap hotel light reflecting off them. Pete was so in love.

“I can feel that,” Patrick whispered with a laugh. Pete blushed and he could feel even his shoulders turning red.

“I really do love you,” Pete replied. Patrick grinned and wrapped his arms around Pete, turning him quickly so he was on top of Pete. He pushed their lips together again, rougher than anything they had ever done before. Their teeth clacked against each other, and Pete carefully stuck his tongue in Patrick’s mouth. Patrick let out a moan and started to grind in to Pete, his erection already growing in his own pants.

They both pulled back for a breath and Pete dug his fingernails into Patrick’s back at the loss of warmth.

“Do you really want this?” Patrick asked. Pete’s pupils were blown wide as he stared at Patrick with wide eyes and they flicked to Patrick’s lips, already swollen.

“Yes—fucking yes,” Pete said. “I want this so fucking bad, Patrick, you don’t even realize. I’ve wanted you for months. I wanted you the moment I saw you. I want you so fucking bad,” Pete babbled. Patrick cut him off with another heated kiss before he sat up, still on Pete’s crotch, and pulled his shirt off, chucking it somewhere in the hotel room.

Pete was desperately trying to grind into something, but he was stuck underneath Patrick. Patrick smirked and climbed off Pete, much to Pete’s whines. He was undoing Pete’s belt a second later before he started to tug on Pete’s pants. Pete willingly lifted his hips up, desperate for anything he could get.

He expected Patrick to take his boxers off with the pants, but he left those on. He climbed back up on Pete and Pete could see that he was completely naked. Pete desperately motioned for Patrick to come back down to his lips and Patrick obliged, happy to do so. Both were grinding into each other, but Pete was still desperate for so much more.

“Please, more,” he begged once Patrick started kissing Pete’s neck. He didn’t want to suck any marks on it with the interviews coming up tomorrow, but he knew he would have another time to mark Pete and make sure the entire world, especially the paparazzi, knew who he belonged to.

“Mine,” Patrick almost growled against Pete’s neck. He nipped at it again before moving downwards and getting angry to be reminded that Pete still had his shirt on. Pete noticed and quickly took it off.

“I’m yours,” Pete said, following by a loud moan as Patrick latched onto one of his nipples. Patrick rolled his tongue around the nub and bit on it slightly and Pete couldn’t help but buck up into Patrick and dig his fingers even farther into Patrick’s back. He was so desperate, so desperate to feel anything but his stupid boxers.

Patrick made his way down Pete’s chest until he made it to the top of his boxers. Pete moved his hands to Patrick’s soft hair and tugged on it slightly, eager for Patrick to do more, but Patrick was too preoccupied with forming a hickey on Pete’s sharp hip.

“Patrick—fucking. Please, I need more. I need it so fucking bad,” Pete begged again. His dick still had barely any friction and he was so ready for whatever Patrick planned to do.

Patrick looked up at him with hooded eyelids and before Pete knew it, his boxers were off and Patrick had his mouth wrapped around the tip of his cock. It took everything in Pete to not buck up into that perfect mouth, to ruin the voice he needed in the morning, to mouth fuck him so hard those perfect lips would split in half.

Patrick slowly worked down, taking his time to explore where he could. He hit the base after a minute of absolute torture and then he started bobbing. Pete threw his head back and almost screamed because it felt _that damn good_.

Patrick didn’t slow down either, if anything, he sped up. He savored the flavor of Pete’s cock while he still had it in his mouth.

When Pete tugged on his hair and let out a choked moan, he knew what was about to come. He pulled off with a loud pop.

“Do it,” he instructed before swallowing Pete’s cock again. It wasn’t long after that that Pete was coming stripes down Patrick’s throat, his hips jerking even farther into Patrick’s mouth. It took everything in him to not start choking as he swallowed all he could.

When he was sure Pete was done, he kissed him again, making sure Pete got to taste himself. Pete seemed into it, even after his orgasm.

Patrick felt a rough hand start to start to pump his cock and he smiled again, deepening their kiss even more. Pete spent a lot of time swirling the head in his hand, but he made sure the whole shaft got his attention. Patrick ended the kiss and bit his lip while he tried to support himself, but his arms where trembling as his stomach heated up. He knew he was close and so did Pete.

“Cum for me, baby,” Pete whispered into Patrick’s ear.

Patrick was finished right after that, creating a mess on his and Pete’s chests. Pete pumped him through the whole thing and only pulled his hand back when Patrick collapsed on to him, smearing the mess they had made around.

Pete laughed. “Shower tonight?” he asked. Patrick nodded from the crook of his neck.

“I want a round two,” he joked.

~

All the interviews went fine the next day, but Patrick was ready to sleep when they finally got out of the last one by noon. Unfortunately, Pete had never been to LA and wanted to go sightseeing. He pulled Patrick around to various sites that Patrick had seen way too many times before, but Pete kept pointing to things that Patrick had never noticed or he kept talking about things that Patrick had never cared to think about before.

At the end of the day, they ended up at Santa Monica Beach, and even though there were many people around them, it felt like only them. Their hands were interlocked and they sat on the sand, close to the crashing waves. The sun was setting into a beautiful gradient of pink, purple, and orange.

Pete couldn’t help but staring at Patrick the whole time. The light reflected off his glasses and his ever-fluffy hair when exposed to the air. His hat sat next to him.

“Have you been staring at me?” Patrick confronted with a smile. Pete blushed and averted his eyes.

“I much prefer you over this sunset,” Pete said. He didn’t mention that the sunset was guaranteed to happen every night, but always loving Patrick was never a guarantee.

Patrick scooted closer to Pete so he could wrap his arm around him. “Yeah, well, it’s easier to look at the sun than it is you.”

Pete stopped for a second. “Wow… that’s good. Why didn’t I think of that?” Pete complained. Patrick chuckled.

“I can think of good things sometimes.”

 _You don’t need perfect words when you’re already perfect_ , Pete thought and blushed again. He hoped Patrick didn’t notice.

 

That night, as they lay cuddled in the hotel bed, Patrick suggested they go on a real vacation sometime.

“After the movie is done, when the hype of our relationship has died down, we can just… go to the Bahamas or something. Just relax,” he offered.

“That sounds good,” Pete said. “We’ll have to plan it soon. Make sure we can get everything as relaxing as possible.”

“Yeah, of course.”

They went silent and soon enough Pete’s breathing evened out, but Patrick was stuck awake with his thoughts. He could already picture them on a remote beach, running the soft, white sand through their toes while making out. It sounded like absolute paradise. But anything sounded like absolute paradise as long as Pete was involved.

~

The sharp ringing of the phone drummed in Patrick’s ear; a ringtone that wasn’t his. He groaned and yelled at the noise to stop while his pillow squished into the sides of his head. This definitely wasn’t the best way to wake up on a Saturday morning after spending half the night participating in exhausting shenanigans. He heard Pete laugh next to him and then the bed was shifted upwards, quickly after the ringing stopped and Patrick relaxed.

He was almost asleep again when Pete jumped on his back and, not expecting it, his air was stolen from him. Pete didn’t seem to notice how hard he landed and continuously smiled at Patrick.

“Not the best way to wake up,” Patrick mumbled.

“Maybe for you.”

Patrick was at least still a quarter asleep despite losing all his air, but he made Pete scoot over so he could sit up. “What’s going on?” he asked. Pete still had on the grin that still managed to make Patrick’s heart flutter, even months later. “Why is this a good way to wake up for anyone?”

“You know that audition I had last week?”

“Yeah?” Pete was bouncing up and down and Patrick couldn’t help but feel warm at his excitement. He could barely believe that Pete was his. It was such a fairytale come true that he believed a dragon was about to burst into his apartment and take him to some far away tower. He didn’t know if Pete would be willing to save him, but he hoped so.

“Well, I got the part!” Pete exclaimed, his voice squeaking near the end.

“Oh, my fuck!” Patrick yelled back, pulling Pete in for a hug. “That’s fucking amazing!” he practically screamed in Pete’s ear.

“I don’t mean to dampen the celebration, but you’re hugging me and we are both ass-exposed naked.”

Patrick quickly pulled back, laughing to himself. He was so proud of Pete that he couldn’t think of anything witty to respond with.

“Let’s go out to dinner tonight. Something fancy. Invite Brendon and his wife,” Patrick offered. He was obviously awake now and aware that he was completely exposed. He tugged the comforter over Pete and himself. “My treat,” he added.

“You sure you want to do that?” Patrick saw the anxiety in Pete’s green eyes and he was reminded that Pete suffered with money for almost his whole life and he actually felt bad for offering, but quickly shook it off.

“I’ve got money coming out of my ears,” he said.

“Odd, I haven’t found any yet,” Pete joked, before he looked downcast again. “You seriously are sure?”

“I promise I can do that, Pete,” Patrick softly said. He leaned into Pete and gave him a soft kiss before getting up so quickly that he had to put out his arms in order to keep balance. “I don’t know about you, but I’m ready to get dressed and make breakfast. Pancakes?”

“Pancakes sound amazing.” Pete followed him into the bathroom with his newfound confidence.

 

The pancakes didn’t come out much like circles and more like splatters of batter. Pete was jubilant and he blasted Guns ‘N Roses and Michael Jackson as Patrick tried to cook. The dancing that ensued caused him to continuously bump into Patrick, especially when he was pouring the batter on the griddle. Patrick scolded him multiple times but that didn’t stop him from dancing around to “I Want You Back” and burning the first side of his pancakes.

They were still delicious as always and after both had their fill, the music still blasting, Pete started a fight by throwing one at his boyfriend. Patrick looked angry at first and Pete was about to profusely apologize to him before Patrick reciprocated, a pancake flying into his eye. “Oh, it’s a war,” he declared. Patrick returned with his best ‘come at me’ motion.

It wasn’t long before both were picking pancakes off the floor and throwing them without looking because both were laughing too hard to focus. It was too much fun, throwing a soft patty at each other. The war went through out the whole apartment, pancakes trailing behind them. When they ran out, they started picking up whatever pancake they could find and throwing them. Patrick missed Pete often and eventually Pete was teasing Patrick for his bad aim, which made Patrick throw them harder and Pete laugh even harder.

They stopped after ten minutes when Patrick’s asthma started getting mad and he had to sit down. Pete was happy to sit next to him on the couch. A few minutes later, Patrick asked Pete if he’s asked Brendon about the dinner.

Pete said he did and that Brendon would love to. Patrick flashed him a thumbs up then grabbed the TV remote and turned it on. Soon enough, he was muting it and turning to Pete.

“I have no idea what your show is about,” he said

“Oh yeah, I didn’t explain!

“Okay, I play the cool rocker of the group, so there’s that. I think they like the fact that I can actually play the guitar. And I’m constantly going in and out of bands because I’m super fucking picky, which my friends tell me every day. And I’m also the loser older brother of the family because apparently I have extremely smart twin sisters, so that seems cool. I’m not sure much about the plot, yet, I just know my character is really cool and I’m so excited, Trick.”

“I’m so glad you got the part, Pete. Maybe the show will take off and you’ll be able to buy me an expensive dinner,” Patrick joked. Pete grinned back and nodded his head.

“We start filming in two weeks, so you better get all the Pete you can before I’m gone.” He held out his arms and even though Patrick rolled his eyes, he crawled into them and snuggled into Pete. They watched the TV before Patrick asked if he wanted the channel changed and Pete replied with an almost-desperate “yes, please.”

 

After much arguing, Pete and Patrick were on their way to the dinner. It took half an hour before Patrick could get Pete to even put on a tux. Patrick’s body guard, Hurley, wasn’t with him, despite this being the first outing since his incident. The media was playing up the attack to more than it actually was, which made Hurley believe that he had to be there, but was eventually convinced after Patrick told him for the fourth time that he’d be with three other people and he wouldn’t be walking anyway. He couldn’t blame the guy, protecting Patrick was his job. No one would want to fail that quickly, anyway.

But that didn’t matter because Patrick was safe during this outing. Which didn’t make sense as to why could feel a dull ache in his pinky while he was driving. Anxiety, he guessed.

“So, I must tell you that Sarah is pregnant. Almost four months, I think,” Pete spoke up. They were driving on the repetitive back roads to get to Sarah and Brendon’s house in the suburbs. Pete still couldn’t believe that he was close friends with someone who literally owned a picket fence.

“Useful to know.”

“It’s weird because I don’t actually know Sarah that well and I’ve only seen her a few times before, but I haven’t since she’s been pregnant. Do you think she’ll want the passenger seat?” Pete rushed out. He could feel the anxiety in his chest.

“Just ask her when we get there, Pete.”

“I don’t want her to get mad at me.”

“She won’t, I promise,” Patrick reassured. Pete took a deep breath and willed himself to believe him.

“Anxiety is a bitch.”

“Yeah,” Patrick agreed. “I’m excited to talk to Brendon outside of the hospital.” Patrick took a left turn that led into the perfect picket fence neighborhood.

“Everyone deserves to meet him outside the hospital.”

Pete watched out for their house and he told Patrick to pull in and wait in the car while he grabbed them. Patrick watched as Pete rang their doorbell and gave both of them a hug, having trouble giving Sarah a good one because of her belly. It wasn’t that big yet, but Pete was so conscious of the baby he didn’t want to risk pressing on it. Sarah noticed and laughed at him, which Pete returned with a sheepish smile.

“Hi!” she exclaimed to Patrick once she climbed into the passenger seat. Patrick smiled to himself, knowing that Pete had offered the seat to her. _What a gentleman_ , he thought.

“Hello,” he cheerfully said. He waited for her to put her seatbelt on, then pulled out of the driveway and made his way to the restaurant.

“You look beautiful, Sarah,” Pete piped up after a few minutes of the radio being the only sound. Patrick turned it down slightly and looked at Sarah. He hadn’t noticed before but she did look pretty. Her makeup was perfect and she was wearing a flowing lilac dress that complimented her pale complexion.

“Thanks, Pete. The dress doesn’t press on my belly at all, it’s perfect. Ask Brendon, I’ve been wearing it too much.” She looked back at him and chuckled.

“I had to fight her to wash it last night.”

“Just wait until you get pregnant, babe,” she said. Patrick laughed at the interaction, it was so sarcastic yet still full of love.

“Wait, what song is playing?” Brendon said suddenly. He peaked his head through between the driver and passenger seat and if Patrick had known Brendon better he would have shoved him back. Luckily, Sarah did it.

“Uh, I’m not sure,” Patrick replied. He turned the radio up.

“ _And your eyes are the size of the moon_

_You could 'cause you can so you do_

_We're feeling so good_

_Just the way that we do_

_When it's nine in the afternoon_ ”

“Holy shit, that’s Ryan!” Brendon yelled. He was laughing from excitement and Patrick could see him bouncing from the rear-view mirror.

“Calm down, dude. Who’s Ryan?” Pete asked.

“He was a good friend I had in high school who loved music. I was there when he wrote this song, actually. Holy shit, he made it!”

“I remember hearing this song years ago,” Patrick stated, his face scrunching in thought. He could remember it clearly. He was pretty sad that night, having been rejected again, and almost ready to give up on acting. He was glad he didn’t and that by the morning his sadness had been blown away.

“And I’m just now hearing it?” Brendon said, voice laced with disbelief. “What the fuck?”

“I’ve never heard it either,” Pete said, laying his arm on Brendon in a fake-comforting way.

“It isn’t him singing though, is it?” Sarah questioned towards Brendon. She had known Brendon when he was still friends with Ryan and always loved when she was with Brendon and Ryan was singing him a new song. She wasn’t there for this song though.

“No, I don’t who the singer is.

“You know, he wanted me to sing for the band, but I had a job and I was marrying Sarah soon. I didn’t have the time.”

“Oh yeah, he got pissed at Brendon too.”

“Why would you get angry at that?” Patrick said, with some disbelief in his voice.

“Um, there was more than that, that’s just what sent him off. We haven’t talked since I invited him to my wedding and he didn’t show up,” Brendon said, melancholy. Patrick jumped when he heard Pete clap behind him.

“Okay, don’t mean to change the topic, but also let’s not be so sad. Not to be selfish, but it’s my day of celebration.”

“Of course!” Brendon slapped a hand onto Pete’s back. “I don’t want to make it sad.”

Pete smiled at Brendon and put his arm around his shoulder.

~

The restaurant really was fancy. It had a brick exterior, a canopy over the entrance, benches that worked to ‘rope’ off the extravagant garden filled with large rocks, colorful flowers, and a working waterfall.

Patrick was grinning and squeezed Pete’s hand, but all Pete could focus on was how anxious he was. This place had to be extremely expensive and Patrick’s reassurance that he could afford it wasn’t enough. He felt like he was seriously taking advantage of Patrick. Patrick may love Pete, but he didn’t even know Brendon and Sarah, and yet he was about to drop a lot of money on the three of them.

Patrick must have seen Pete’s face because he squeezed his hand again. “It’s fine,” he said. Pete knew on the surface that Patrick was willingly spending the money and he wanted to, but deep down he couldn’t help but feel like a piece of crap spending the money.

The wait time was surprisingly nothing and they were being sat in a booth. To be fair, the hostess seemed to get excited near Patrick, and that may have played an advantage.

“Okay, I don’t care how much you guys spend,” Patrick said before anyone else was able to say something. “Pete is over here very anxious, but I seriously don’t care. Order lobster or the biggest steak. I can afford it.” The last comment was directed towards Pete and he retreated into himself. Luckily, Sarah had the same worries.

“Are you sure, Patrick?” she asked. Patrick nodded and opened his menu.

“Whatever you want,” he mumbled.

“Well, I’m taking advantage of that!” Brendon said with a laugh. Brendon flinched and he looked at Sarah, who was smirking to herself.

“Please do,” Patrick responded. Brendon mouthed something to Sarah and waved towards Patrick and she shrugged.

A young kid walked up to the table holding a tiny notebook. Patrick was the only one to notice and nudged Pete.

“I’ll be your waiter tonight; my name is Kellin. Are you guys ready for drinks?” he asked with a smile. All nodded and a minute later Kellin walked away.

“Man, I want to get lobster. Haven’t had that in a long time,” Brendon said.

“Go for it. You know what you want, Pete?” Pete looked up, biting his lip.

“I don’t want to take advantage of you.”

“Pete, for the last time, you can’t. I can afford it. Brendon’s going to get the most expensive thing on the menu, okay? You can get whatever you want,” Patrick explained softly, topping it off with a deep kiss. “I love you, Pete, and I’m treating you. This is your day. Understand?” Pete nodded and grinned at Patrick. He looked like he was going to say something, but he flicked his eyes towards Brendon and decided against it. Patrick let him and instead turned his attention to Sarah.

“So, Pete says you’re about four months?” Sarah nodded and folded in her menu, stacking it on to Brendon’s. “Figure out the gender yet?”

“It’s still too early to tell. I’m hoping for a girl, though,” Sarah told him.

“I wanted a girl, but Sarah won’t let me name her Mona,” Brendon said with a smug smile.

Patrick grimaced to agree with Sarah. “Not the best name.”

“Thanks, Patrick,” Sarah said, a pointed look thrown at Brendon.

“Oh, come on, Sarah, Patrick isn’t the father!” he protested.

Pete laughed and shoved himself into Patrick. “He’d make a perfect father though,” he said affectionately, looking at Patrick. Patrick smiled and pecked Pete on the lips.

“Hey, I’ll make a good father too!” Brendon exclaimed.

“Keep that picket fence intact and you will,” Pete joked.

“I’ll repaint it right away, Mr. Wentz.”

“You better, I’m gonna be famous now. As famous as Patrick!”

Patrick scoffed and smiled at Pete, a glitter in his eye. “You got some years and paparazzi to catch up on, buddy.”

“I’ve already made covers of magazines, haven’t I?”

“Because of me.”

“Because I’m so lucky to get you,” Pete said, rubbing his head against Patrick’s shoulder as if he were a cat.

“Stop being so mushy, you two,” Sarah said as their waiter showed up with their drinks

Kellin put them down and got out his notebook, asking if they were ready to order.

~

Leaving the restaurant wasn’t fun and was very annoying, for Patrick at least. The paparazzi had gotten word where he was and was outside with their blinding flashes. He honestly wished he could get away for at least a night, especially with two people he still didn’t know well. Brendon seemed to enjoy the attention, but Sarah wanted to get out of it. Patrick let Pete get Brendon and he grabbed Sarah, blocking her as much as he could and guided her to the car, which the valet had already brought up.

He apologized to her when they got in the car but she seemed fine with it.

“Someone tipped them off to where I was,” Patrick, irritated, said.

“I know it isn’t your fault. Where’s Brendon?” Just like magic, Brendon staggered in to the car with a wide grin and a frustrated Pete.

“Dude, why did you have to say hi?” Pete said.

“I wanted to pose!”

“Well, you didn’t have to,” Pete huffed, crossing his arms. Brendon laughed.

“They won’t use pictures of me anyway.”

“They will if they didn’t get any good ones of me,” Patrick said, driving off. Brendon shrugged.

~

“What are we doing for dinner tonight?” Pete asked about a week later, looking at Patrick. Patrick was in the kitchen, scrounging through the fridge.

“Don’t know. I need to go grocery shopping.” Just then, Patrick’s phone went off. Joe was calling him and he quickly picked it up. After the call, Patrick rushed into his bedroom and came out a few minutes later. Pete was a little panicked, thinking Patrick was rushing for the worst. He didn’t exactly know what the worst was, though.

Patrick left the apartment with a quick explanation to Pete about a great audition, having to leave now, and will bring back dinner.

When Patrick got back with some Chinese takeout, they sat up the table and started eating. Patrick asked him what exactly the role was.

“You know movies that tend to go to people like Leonardo DiCaprio? Well, it’s one of those and this could really cement my career. The audition was for a second-leading role, but it’s still _huge_.”

“Yeah, but what exactly is it about?” Pete said right after slurping up a noodle. Patrick couldn’t believe he even found that endearing.

“A soldier who’s trapped in the army, but he doesn’t want to be there anymore. He’s stuck in a war he didn’t vote for nor did he ever sign up for.”

“What war?”

Patrick shrugged and stuck some more chicken in his mouth.

 

Patrick got the role which ensued even more celebration and another expensive dinner, but this time with just Patrick and Pete. Of course, Pete was so happy for Patrick afterwards that he gave him his own special award.

 

The next day, Patrick got a phone call. When he got off, he looked disappointed. Depressed, even.

He let his fork fall on his plate and pushed his breakfast eggs away slightly. He refused to look at Pete. “I can’t take the part,” he mumbled.

Pete moved to the barstool next to Patrick. “Why?” he asked, preventing himself from grabbing Patrick into a hug. He looked like he was going to cry.

“I’d have to leave for a year for filming, I can’t do that.”

Pete understood him now. Just like that, he was smacked himself with a deep ache. Patrick was right, he couldn’t take the part. But he had to. It was too good to give up. If Patrick did this movie, his career as an actor would be set in stone. He’d officially be an A-list celebrity. He couldn’t give this up.

“Yes, you can. You fucking will. There’s no way you can let this slip like that. This is fucking huge, Trick, and I love you, but I won’t hold you back.”

“It’s not just you, Pete. What about my family? Apartment? My mail? I mean, I can’t leave for a whole fucking year. I have too much here.” Patrick rubbed at his face, hard. He sniffed and Pete knew that he had been crying. Oh, my gosh, he needed to convince Patrick to not drop this.

“Your bills are paid online, you can just cancel your mail or something. And they have planes, right? You can still come home. They have to give you breaks to come home, eventually. Or come over when you don’t have to film a scene for a few days? I don’t know, but you can’t fucking give this up. This is big, Trick, like huge. There is no _not_ taking the role.”

Patrick looked at Pete and rubbed his tears away. Pete leaned in and gave him a chaste kiss, kissing the tears on his lips away. Patrick smiled in it, trying to be comforted. He wrapped his arms around Pete’s back.

“Want to go snuggle and watch Netflix while you think about what I said?” Pete said. Patrick nodded and laughed a tiny bit.

“That sounds great. I’ll pick something out, you make popcorn?”

“Perfect.” Pete gave him another peck on the lips then slid off the chair.

 

During the night, right as Pete fell asleep, Patrick woke him up telling him that he’ll take the part.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel like I should mention that I didn't know Halsey's real name was Ashley until after I had published the first chapter. Meaning I named the character she plays Ashley and then assigned Halsey that character without even realizing.


	5. Miss Missing You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Well, something bad had to happen, right?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, another chapter after a few days! Enjoy it, because I have to write the next chapter from scratch. It's a lead up to a part two of this fic that I plan on writing. 
> 
> There's more porn in this chapter, but again, it can easily be skipped if you wish to do so. It doesn't have a proper ending, anyway, because I got sick of writing it lmao.

The next week was a blur of packing for the trip, saying goodbye to family and various friends, seeing if Hurley could attend his trip with him (he could, but would join a few days later) and spending so much time with Pete that Patrick was almost sick of him. Well, if that was possible. He was terrified what the year apart would do to their relationship, but Pete tended to know when Patrick was thinking about it and had a gift at reassuring him nothing would happen. They loved each other enough, right? But he knew what long distance did to couples, especially couples who hadn’t even been dating a whole year.

And then before Patrick knew it, he was at the airport to travel to his first destination for the role. It was barely any time at all because, apparently, the film was on an extremely strict schedule and got a late start. He had to leave before Thanksgiving and he wouldn’t even get Thanksgiving off to go home.

“We’ll video chat Thanksgiving, right?” Patrick asked. It was hard to believe that Pete was the one with the anxiety here with how often Patrick was asking questions and trying to get reassured.

“Of course, Trick. I love you, but you gotta get on your plane. So shoo,” Pete joked, shoving Patrick slightly. Patrick gave him an irritated look and Pete laughed. “Is that my last memory of you?”

“Don’t joke like that! I don’t know when we’ll see each other!”

“Christmas, right? And you’ll call me when you get there? So it won’t be too long. Come on, gimme a kiss then go.” Patrick wrapped his arms around Pete and lingered until Pete practically pushed him off. “You gotta go, Trick.” Pete puckered his lips for a kiss and Patrick smiled and gave him a kiss like he was about to die. Not that Pete was going to complain about it.

Then he was off and Pete started crying once he could no longer see Patrick. He played strong for Patrick, but he really had no idea what was going to happen. He hoped when Patrick came home their relationship would still be as strong as ever. For now, it was go back to Patrick’s apartment and set it up for its ‘hibernation’ as they called it. Really what it was was clearing Patrick’s fridge, turning off the heat, and other various mundane things Pete was trusted to do. Possibly the most painful one was taking all his clothes that had ‘accidently’ accumulated in the apartment and returning them to his studio apartment. Maybe once Patrick came back they would move in together. Pete would definitely not be against that.

 

Pete started filming his show, creating a good distraction for Patrick. They were on a strict schedule and he was usually so busy memorizing and practicing his lines that he couldn’t think of how much he missed Patrick’s soft lips and pale skin. They texted, of course, but not much as Patrick was in a drastically different time zone and was so busy. Pete wanted to stay up to talk to him, but between filming and practice, he couldn’t afford to lose the sleep.

Thanksgiving day came with a long video chat in the middle of the night. Pete saw the bright sun coming from Patrick’s side of the world and he could hear waves crashing in the background, along with a few shouts that he heard every once in a while. Patrick had explained to Pete that he was still on the set, but had nothing left to film for the day.

“Has filming gone good so far?” Pete asked. Patrick smiled and nodded, quickly looking behind him. He motioned to some one off the camera.

“Come over here, Andy,” he said. Hurley came into view and waved at Pete. “He’s been keeping me company,” Patrick explained. Hurley nodded behind him before exited the view of the camera again. “He’s a pretty good dude.”

“Good thing we hired him then,” Pete said. Patrick quickly agreed with him. His eyes glimmered in the sunlight and Pete couldn’t help but feel like he was going to die without Patrick at that very moment.

“Fuck, I can’t wait until you visit,” he said, his voice already choking up. Patrick frowned and moved closer to the camera.

“Yeah,” Patrick said softly. “I can’t wait too. I miss you a lot.”

Pete couldn’t respond. He took a few deep breaths and wiped at his eyes before chuckling, but even he could tell there was nothing in the chuckle. “It’s just late and I’m emotional.”

“You’re going to make me cry!” Patrick accused, but by the looks of it he was already on the brink of tears. His head snapped to the side before Pete could say anything more and Patrick furrowed his brows. “I have to go, um, a scene I didn’t know about or something?” he quickly explained. Pete saw Hurley step into view of the camera again. “I don’t know. I’ll try to text you tonight. I love you, Pete.”

After a few weeks, Pete was too lonely for his own good. Brendon was gone with Sarah to see her family in Michigan, and really, he had no other friends. He couldn’t help but unpack his guitar sitting in the dusty box for way too long. When he first got to the city, he had no need to play his guitar, but then he met Patrick and he had practically forgot about it. But now… well, Patrick was still gone for a few more weeks.

He sat down with the guitar and started strumming. He was rusty, but he picked it back up quickly. Soon enough he was playing one of his favorite songs and singing the lyrics almost perfectly. Except his not-so-great voice was reminding him of how wonderful Patrick’s voice is. Missing Patrick didn’t go away, but the guitar flooded his thoughts and the refreshing feeling of his hands moving across the strings helped remind him everything would be okay.

He didn’t stop playing for hours. He lost track of the time, but everything felt right. He went through all the songs he knew before forming some of his own songs. He got out his journal full of song lyrics from his old band and looked through all the pages, but none of the lyrics seemed right. He sighed and sat with his guitar again, lightly strumming.

“You know I could crush you with my voice,” he whispered a few minutes later. He scrambled to grab a clean sheet of paper and write it down, but as he tried to think of something more he couldn’t do it. Instead he played another song on his guitar and went to bed. It was already past four AM, he had to be up in three hours, and he was screwed.

 

Christmas was in a few days and Pete missed Patrick so much it was almost unbearable. Filming was done for the first half of the first season and Pete was stuck in his studio apartment. His guitar wasn’t helping him anymore and he couldn’t think of any song lyrics that weren’t about Patrick. He was desperate to see his boyfriend.

Well, until he thought of the idea to decorate Patrick’s apartment. He hadn’t been in it since the day Patrick left, but Patrick gave him a key, right? He must not mind if Pete goes into the apartment. It was just to decorate too! For Christmas! Who _wouldn’t_ love that? Only one problem: it was two days till Christmas and no store would be selling good decorations anymore, let alone a tree. He didn’t have one and he was almost sure that if Patrick had a fake one it’d be in some storage container, not in his apartment.

After some thought, he realized he had nothing to lose if he at least went over to the apartment and looked around. He showered quickly and headed over there.

Of course, after half an hour of searching, he found nothing. He didn’t have any ideas, except to go to the stores and check the discounts and craft a ‘tree.’ After a few stores were hit, he found the Wal-Mart in the town over had plenty of Christmas decorations left over. Pete bought a big bag of tinsel, a few ornaments, a reef, and a crap ton of Christmas lights. He then searched the store for a makeshift tree (he decided on a tree air freshener, as he had seen a photo online of someone doing that), and bought some milk and cookie dough mix, along with whatever presents he could find (not that he didn’t already have some).

By the time he left the store, he was jumping with excitement to surprise Patrick. He was totally getting laid Christmas Eve.

He spent all his time making sure the apartment was perfect. There were lights in all but two rooms (the bathrooms), tinsel and stockings were hung from the fireplace, Pete even spent an hour trying to get one light wrapped around the air freshener. Paper snowflakes littered Patrick’s giant windows (Pete hoped the paparazzi got a kick out of that) and the lights hanging from the ceiling really helped brighten his apartment. It basically looked like a winter wonderland. If Patrick didn’t come home loving his apartment, Pete would have to break up with him, no doubt about it.

Around five on Christmas Eve, Pete drove to the airport to pick Patrick up. He waited for him by the gate and when he showed up, he barreled into him, pushing kisses onto his lips, cheeks, hair, anywhere he could reach. For a few seconds, Pete made Patrick forget about the pictures that were sure to hit the internet in an hour.

“I missed you so much, Trick,” Pete yelled to the entire airport. Patrick laughed and grabbed his hand, pulling him out of the chaos.

“I missed you too, Pete,” he said, giving Pete a deep kiss once they got outside. He saw the flash of a camera in the corner of his eye, but he couldn’t care because he had his boyfriend and he finally got to go home and sleep in a non-hotel bed.

“I am so ready to go and fall into bed with you and watch Christmas movies until we can’t keep our eyes open anymore,” Patrick practically purred. Pete smiled and agreed with him.

During the whole car ride home, Patrick told him various stories from the set, some horror stories about motels, and just how much he missed him.

“I’m hoping we can text and video chat more, considering my next filming location is Alaska, I think. Similar time zone, right? It was hell not talking like we did,” Patrick said.

“I knew you were really busy, so I lived. I started playing my guitar again.”

“Really?! Why haven’t I heard it yet?!” Patrick exclaimed, smiling at Pete.

“Well, you have been in, like, Asia, or wherever,” Pete joked.

“Whatever, Pete. You’re going to play for me before I leave again.”

 

Patrick dropped all his luggage when he entered his apartment and put his hands over his mouth. Pete was staring at Patrick, smiling the widest he could do without tearing his cheeks apart. He wished he could smile more.

“You did all this?” Patrick asked, turning to Pete.

“In two days.”

“Oh, my god, Pete, it’s fucking amazing! I can’t believe you fucking did this for me! I’m not _this_ special!”

“Hey, that’s your opinion,” Pete faked offense. Patrick smacked his arm.

“I have no idea how I can ever repay you for this.” Patrick walked towards the fireplace first, feeling the stockings in-between his fingers before touching the tinsel. He turned back and stared at the lights, which were shining brightly in all the gorgeous color combinations: purple, blue, red, green, etc. “It’s so fucking beautiful. I have no response.”

Pete wrapped his arms around Patrick’s waist and pulled their lips together. “How about we snuggle and watch movies like you said, and tomorrow you can pay me back,” he whispered, a bit too seductively. Patrick chuckled and nodded his head, letting Pete lead him into his bedroom and tuck him into bed.

“So, where are these Christmas movies?” Pete said, grinning.

“Shoved in the back of the TV cabinet. Thanks, Pete,” he yelled when Pete was in the living room.

“Okay, I think we should start with ‘Home Alone’.” Pete held up the disc once he got back in the bedroom and Patrick agreed with him, so Pete plopped the movie in and snuck into Patrick’s arms. Unfortunately, both were so warm, tired, and happy that they fell asleep in the middle of the first movie.

Patrick woke up Pete by singing “White Christmas” loudly in the kitchen as he made breakfast for the both of them. Pete shuffled to the kitchen and groggily put his chin on Patrick’s shoulder. “Considering where we live, a white Christmas isn’t hard,” he said. Patrick laughed and snuck around to give Pete a kiss.

“Go sit down, breakfast is almost ready,” Patrick said.

“It smells great,” Pete started as he went to the couch. “Do you have any Christmas CDs to play?`              

“Just connect your phone to the stereo. It’s Bluetooth.”

“Fancy.” Patrick chuckled and put some more pressure onto the bacon he was making to remove the grease. He had about half of them flipped over when he finally heard “White Christmas” flood the room. He grinned and started singing along.

Pete grabbed a stocking when Patrick had his eyes closed, singing and dashed to the closets. He planned on staying up past Patrick and filling a stocking with stuffers for Patrick, but he had fallen asleep so early. Just wouldn’t be from “Santa” this year, as if Patrick wasn’t in his thirties.

He shoved everything in as fast as he could and came back out, but of course Patrick had noticed and was staring at home.

“Santa forgot to come last night,” he excused. Patrick laughed.

“He forgot to come for you too. There are wrapped presents in my red suit case for you if you want to get them.”

Pete came back holding at least five boxes from Patrick before he went back to the closet and grabbed the presents he got for Patrick.

Patrick finished breakfast once the next song started (“Rocking Around the Christmas Tree”). Pete cheered and grabbed a seat. They both sang all the songs that came on as they ate their food and danced around in their chairs. Both were just so happy to have Patrick home, even if it was only for a week. There was nothing that could tear them down.

“Presents now? Presents? Presents!” Pete begged Patrick only a few minutes later. He was acting like a little kid, but Patrick found it so endearing.

“Yes, we can open presents. But I have to do my stocking first!” Patrick dashed for his stocking and grabbed it from the couch.

He pulled out a pack of gum (one of those older brands and designs), a small gold pocket watch, some candy, and at the bottom, a tiny teddy bear that had his name on it. He kissed Pete and got up to hand Pete one of his presents.

Pete tore into the wrapping paper like a child. Inside he found a box that when opened, contained a leather jacket with a rose decal on the front.

“I found it in Taiwan. I thought you’d like it.”

“What would you do if I print ‘I love Patrick Stump’ on the back?” Pete said with a grin, slightly hugging the jacket to show Patrick how much he loved it.

“I would kill you,” Patrick responded.

They went through all the presents, until Pete opened his last present, which was filled with little knick knacks. There were some magnets, some small statues, some buttons, and more.

“I would find them in gas stations at each place. I thought they were cute so I started looking for the best knick knack to bring to you,” Patrick explained as Pete took a statue of an Asian ballerina in a porcelain white tutu out.

“That’s… really thoughtful,” Pete said, grinning at Patrick. He put the box down and pushed Patrick onto the couch, climbing on top of him to give him a kiss.

“Now, can I give you your real present,” Patrick whispered. Pete gazed back at the tree then turned with a confused expression. Patrick smacked him. “In the bedroom, dummy.”

“Oh! Then let’s go!”

 

The next day was filled with snow. They spent the whole day outside making snowmen, snow angels, and even going so far as to make an igloo. A crappy one, but still.

Eventually fans of Patrick joined them and instead of just getting a selfie and going, they got invited into a snowball fight. With at least ten people, they went at each other. Laughter filled the air and snow hit every part of them, but again they were happy. They kept sneaking in kisses before throwing snow at a fan and sneaking in another kiss.

When the sun hit the horizon and they were hungry, they left the park with an odd warmness for people who had spent hours in the snow. Patrick grabbed Pete’s gloved hand and squeezed it while they walked.

“I’m not famous for today,” Patrick told Pete as he heard another iPhone camera go off during their walk.

“What do you mean?”

“Today doesn’t count. Today the pictures don’t matter and I’m not famous. We’re going to enjoy the rest of the day like normal people.”

“What about the fans asking for pictures?”

“Just a happy inconvenience. It doesn’t matter today. It’s my day off from stress, okay? And with that thought, why don’t we see a movie? Like every non-famous couple does.”

Pete really didn’t understand what Patrick was getting, especially since they just had a snowball fight with a lot of fans, but he agreed with him and asked what movie.

 

They both came home with a smile and collapsed into bed, tangling into each other.

“So…,” Pete started. Patrick saw the glint in his eyes.

“Again?” Patrick teased.

“Hey, you were gone for a long time!” Pete defended himself. Patrick laughed and readjusted so he was sitting on Pete.

“Maybe we should take it to the next level,” Patrick suggested with a smirk. Pete almost choked on his own spit.

“Do you have the supplies for that?” Pete said. He couldn’t remember the last time he had bought condoms and lube. He was never one for one-night stands himself.

“Yup.” Patrick leaned down and grabbed Pete’s bottom lip with his teeth and pulled it. “Fuck me, Pete,” he whispered at Pete’s chin.

Pete jumped into action at those words. He lurched up so fast that he almost knocked Patrick from his lap. “Fuck, Trick!” he yelled. Patrick blushed, but still, he held on to his smirk.

“So, that’s a yes?”

“Of fucking course! Go get your lube and shit!” Patrick pecked Pete on the lips before getting up and rushing. When he got back to Pete, Pete was already naked and hard against his chest. Patrick climbed back on, fully clothed, and pressed Pete’s cock between their stomachs so they could kiss again. He handed the lube to Pete and Pete struggled to grasp it as he was too distracted by Patrick, but eventually he got it.

“You need to take your clothes off,” he said to Patrick, but he struggled to get it out in between kisses.

“How about I give you a hickey first?” Patrick said. He moved down Pete’s jaw until he met his neck and started sucking into the skin there. He wanted to make sure everyone knew Pete was his even when he was gone. A moment too soon, Pete was pulling Patrick off him and directing him to remove all his clothing.

Patrick did so with a pout of his lip. Pete found it hot. Way too hot. Patrick was kissing him again quickly and it felt _absolutely_ amazing—it always did—but Pete was much happier running his hands down from Patrick’s face to his shoulders and then his perfect hips and then to the jackpot—his ass. He squeezed it and Patrick let out a quiet moan into Pete’s mouth.

Pete squeezed it a few more times before he picked back up the lube and squeezed a generous amount on his fingers. He twirled a finger around Patrick’s entrance, hoping to get Patrick used to the feeling. Patrick was begging him to speed up, so he did. He stuck the tip of his finger in and slowly worked up before he started swirling the finger in Patrick, crooking it a bit.

Patrick was grasping the back of Pete’s back and his head was on Pete’s shoulder, but he wasn’t telling Pete to stop or slow down, so Pete kept it up until there were three fingers in Patrick. At that point, Patrick was so ready that he was biting onto Pete’s shoulder.

“More. Give me more,” Patrick breathily let out.

“Are you sure?”

“Positive.” Pete pulled his fingers out and Patrick was left feeling exposed to the air, but soon enough Pete was slipping out from Patrick’s grasp and Patrick was positioning himself so he could get fucked properly.

Once Pete had a condom on, he started sinking in. Patrick gasped at the feeling he hadn’t felt in so long, but even if he had done this last week, this was with Pete he was doing it with. Pete was always foreign to him, no matter what they did.

Pete leaned down to Patrick’s ear when he was completely hilted in. “Are you okay?” he said.

Patrick vigorously nodded. “Move,” he said through gritted teeth. Slowly, Pete did what was told of him. Patrick was moaning deliciously underneath him, and it was only encouraging him to go even faster. He pulled out almost completely and eased himself back in a few times until Patrick was begging for _more, more, more_.

He gave him more. He gave him all that he had. And he was warm—no, he was hot. He was fucking blazing up.

And then it was over and he was collapsing onto Patrick’s back in pure bliss.

“Get off me, you dead weight,” Patrick teased.

 

The rest of Patrick’s time spent home was similar. Patrick pretended he wasn’t famous, despite the constant fans asking for pictures, but Pete lived with it because Patrick wouldn’t let them separate, which was basically Pete’s dream come true.

They kept going out to eat in nice places, they hung out in the park again, watched plenty of movies, had more than enough sex, and finally, kissed at the New Year when the ball dropped on the TV. They gave each other their New Years kiss as their promise that Patrick leaving again wouldn’t change anything.

“I don’t want to leave tomorrow,” Patrick said into the kiss.

“Let’s pretend you got murdered so you can stay,” Pete offered. Patrick laughed and pulled away.

“Now I’m scared you’ll actually murder me.”

“We never know, do we?”

“You better not go crazy!” Pete tackled Patrick off the couch and fake bit into his neck, Patrick screaming and laughing along with him.

 

Patrick was on his plane the next day and out of Pete’s sight again. He went back to his own apartment and back to his own bed, where, when Patrick got to his hotel, they video chatted late into the night. They couldn’t get enough of each other.

This went on for the next month while Patrick filmed in Alaska. But after that, Patrick went to Europe, making talking hard again. Filming had started again for Pete and even through his filming, he played his guitar and started writing songs again. He bought himself a new journal and filled that up quickly. He occasionally sent some lyrics to Patrick over text, but it usually took him a few days to respond. Eventually he was sick of the wait and stopped sending the lyrics, even though Patrick loved them. It made his anxiety go on a rampage and he couldn’t stand it after so long.

Patrick occasionally texted him photos of his set, but he was never in them and Pete always forgot to respond as they were sent so early in the morning.

This went on well into March and got even worse in April when Patrick flew to Australia and the time zone was even larger.

Pete hung out with Brendon and Sarah as much as possible but with their new baby they didn’t have much time. Pete liked the baby, but her crying made his heart speed up. She was barely a month old and cried all the time.

In the middle of May, and Pete and Patrick were talking once a week in a good week, Patrick called.

Pete was timid to answer and he probably said his hello too quiet.

“Pete?” Yeah, too quiet.

“I’m here.”

“Okay, well, I’m really upset about this, but, they aren’t giving us our break next month anymore. Somehow, we got behind on schedule and I’m stuck. I miss you so much, Pete. I really want to come home.”

Pete choked up. They wouldn’t see each other until Patrick got home officially, which was months away. He didn’t know how much longer he could take not seeing his boyfriend, not hearing his voice, not even texting him. It was all so much. The worst part is he was the one who encouraged Patrick to do the movie. And he still wanted Patrick to do it, he just wanted to feel less insecure about his relationship.

“Pete? Are you okay?” Patrick asked when Pete still hadn’t responded.

Pete, his voice choked up, responded with: “Yeah, I’m fine. We’ll get through this, right?”

Patrick paused. “Right, Trick?”

“I hope. Listen, I love you so much, but I have to get to sleep. Video chat soon?”

“Yeah, of course. Love you.” Patrick hung up the phone and Pete broke down. Sobs shook his body, because he had no idea what was going to happen.

He wanted to try to fly out to wherever Patrick was, but Patrick was moving around so often that by the time he’d be able to get there, Patrick would be gone. There was no hope. His relationship was failing and he was trying _so_ hard, but it wasn’t enough and he knew that. Nothing was going to be enough, no matter how much he wanted it to be enough. He sobbed until morning light and he was forced to go to work.

The worst part was he knew there’d be no video chat.

~

Soon enough, Pete was done filming and the season went into editing. The production company was so confident the show would be a success that they just filmed the whole thing then and there instead of spacing it out in case the show would have to be cancelled.

There was no video chat and eventually there was no more talking. Pete had tried again, but Patrick was so busy that he never responded. Pete didn’t blame Patrick, _really_ , he blamed his filming schedule. It was too intense and too different and even now that Pete wasn’t filming, they still didn’t have time. Pete had to sleep sometime.

He started spending a lot of time at Brendon and Sarah’s as their baby got older. He got used to her and loved playing with her. It reminded him that not everything was bad in the world, even if Patrick and he weren’t much of a thing anymore.

It was a Saturday night and Brendon and Sarah had made plans with Pete for him to babysit baby Mona for the night so they could go on a much needed date. He was sitting on the coach with Brendon, making idle chat while Sarah got ready in the other room. Soon enough, the topic changed to Patrick.

“I don’t know, Brendon. I love him, but we don’t talk. I hope he still loves me,” Pete sadly said.

“I bet you he does!” Sarah yelled from her bedroom. She walked into the living room, holding Mona in her arms. Mona noticed Pete and smiled, her bright eyes lighting up. She motioned at Pete and Sarah hugged her before setting her in Pete’s arms.

Her soft onesie tickled Pete, but he pulled her closer to his chest and she happily cooed at him. He didn’t know why Mona had such an attachment to him, but it always made him feel something.

“Are you ready, babe?” Sarah said to Brendon. Brendon nodded and got up from the couch with a groan.

“I’m sure he’s just super busy. It’ll work out soon enough,” Brendon told Pete. Sarah nodded next to him.

“Yeah, I hope,” Pete mumbled. Mona frowned at him and Pete realized he had gotten that familiar sad look in his eyes so he tried to brighten up for Mona’s sake.

Sarah was hesitant to start talking, but eventually she reminded Pete of all the instructions about putting Mona to bed, what to do with her to tire her out beforehand, and everything else only new parents worried about. Both of them unwillingly left after some pushing from Pete, but he knew they both needed a date night away from their baby. Every couple, no matter how good, needed a break from the stress of a new baby.

When they had finally left, Pete sat Mona on his leg and bounced her; she seemed delighted to be bounced. Her laughter filled Pete’s ears and forced out all the horrible thoughts about Patrick. Right now all he had to think about was Mona and what he would do while he waited for her bedtime to arrive

 

Spring turned to summer, summer turned to fall, and then time stopped. Patrick got home October ninth. Patrick Stump candids littered the tabloids, but they were just pictures of him leaving his car and going into his apartment. They didn’t tell Pete near enough of what he wanted to know. Patrick hadn’t contacted him and he was way too scared to do it himself. He did it the first time anyway, with the note. It was Patrick’s turn.

That was his excuse, at least.

Pete desperately wanted to contact him though. As the candids rolled in, especially the candids framing Patrick’s face, Pete noticed a huge difference in how Patrick looked. His eyes were sunken in, he didn’t show any of his usual anger towards the paparazzi, and he wasn’t wearing the normal clothes he was always seen in public wearing. Pete flipped through every magazine he saw with Patrick on it to get an answer as to why Patrick looked so horrible, but nothing offered an answer.

Pete was forced to dismiss it as him worrying and Patrick would look fine after some rest.

That didn’t stop Pete from writing more songs than he had ever in his life. Most of the songs were absolutely crap, but the individual lyrics weren’t bad. The songs were his anger with Patrick, his anger at himself, his depression at the failure of the best relationship he’d ever had, his joy sucked away from him, and more. Basically, he was sucked back into his early twenties emo self, but he didn’t exactly want that.

The pilot of his show aried two weeks after Patrick got home. Pete was at Sarah and Brendon’s house to watch the premiere, Sarah was holding a very cute Mona, and Brendon was asking Pete if Patrick had contacted him yet. Pete responded with no and he didn’t think Patrick was going to.

Of course, right at that moment, his phone went off. Brendon gave him a pointed look and Sarah laughed. Pete picked up his phone with basically no breath, and when he turned on the screen he saw a new message from ‘Trick.’ He shoved his phone at Brendon and told him to look at the message.

“I can’t get in your phone, Pete,” Brendon said, trying to hand the phone back. Instead of taking it, Pete muttered his code.

“What if it’s a dick pic?” Brendon said, but Pete glared at him. “It says ‘proud of you and the show, I’m watching tonight.’ What should I respond with?”

“Whatever sounds good,” Pete rushed out. His heart was racing and his hands were clammy.

A minute later Pete’s phone went off again. “Ha! Guess who just got you a date?”

“What?!” Pete yelled, pulling his phone back from Brendon. He stopped to read the texts then lurched at Brendon, wrapping his arms around him.

“Oh my fucking god, thank you so much, Brendon!” Brendon laughed and hugged him back, patting his back for a good touch.

Pete pulled back and read the messages again. It was Patrick asking him if he wanted to come over to watch the show together. Pete quickly texted ‘yes, be over soon.’

The ride to Patrick’s was agony at its finest form. His leg would not stop jiggling and he could not stop biting the inside of his cheek. He knew he had broken the skin there, but even after that he couldn’t stop himself from doing so. He had no idea what Patrick was going to do or what _he_ was going to do.

When he got to Patrick’s building, he was tempted to ask his taxi driver to drive around the block again. However, he didn’t and he got out of the car with trembling legs. He could have easily ran away, there was no reason he _had_ to be there. But he knew he couldn’t do that.

He took a deep breath and buzzed Patrick’s intercom.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, now listen to "Come Back... Be Here" by Taylor Swift. I honestly did not write this based off that song at all.


	6. Heaven's Gate (Epilogue)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Falling in love, losing each other for a year, getting married, then moving to the suburbs. The nuclear family life.

They married five years after they met, fall weather surrounding them as they held each other close, their lips touching for their first married kiss. The wind blew its congratulations into their ears, bringing orange and red leaves with it, leaves that attacked their limited guests but surrounded their love in a cocoon.

They left their kiss to enter the car that was to take them to their Honeymoon at the Bahamas. The sand was blinding white, the ocean a gorgeous blue, and the sun perfect. They ate fancy food, swam past the sunset, watched movies better than the one they had met with, and basked in each other’s company.

One drunken night, with liquor hot on their breaths and their bodies shuffling together, Pete tucked his head into Patrick’s neck, letting his hair tickle him. His breath was distracting as he mumbled, his hands strong on Patrick’s back, as if Patrick was suddenly going to disappear.

“I missed you so fucking much during that year, Trick. I never knew what to do, I was always so depressed, being without you was always too much. I missed your laugh and your body and your-your…” he babbled. Patrick forced Pete out of his neck and put his finger on Pete’s lips, swollen and dark, reflecting the light from the lamp in the corner. He had a calm face as he shushed Pete and stared into his eyes, wanting to communicate everything he could.

“That was three years ago, Pete. That will never happen again. We’re married now, remember?” Patrick said, his eyes bright. Pete desperately nodded, reminding himself Patrick was right here, he wasn’t going to go anywhere, they wouldn’t be separated again. He found Patrick’s lips, passionately locking them together.

Life was going to be fine.

Five years after they married and ten years after they met, they had decided their best course of action was kids. They felt as if their life was calm enough to actively raise children, but it came with one downside: they had to move out of Patrick’s apartment into a house in the suburbs, which then came with a lot of packing.

Patrick had told Pete to clean out his bookshelves in the study, the bookshelves Pete had rarely looked at in ten years. The dust proved their disuse, it being practically a cloud as Pete pulled out different books. He was cleaning out the last bookshelf when he found a couple leather bound journals, the leather frayed and dried.

“Babe, come in here,” he yelled out to Patrick. Patrick came to the doorway and leaned against it, asking what Pete wanted.

“What are these?” Pete asked. Patrick furrowed his brows and took one from Pete, letting it slide across his hands before he opened it. A nostalgic smile spread across his face as he turned each page, going slower as he went.

“It’s sheet music I wrote in my teens and twenties,” Patrick explained. Pete looked at the journal over Patrick’s shoulder, and Patrick stopped when he got half through, pointing at the messy handwriting.

“’Allie’. I remember writing this one. I was really proud of it at the time.” He spent a little bit reading it over before he closed the journal and handed it back to Pete. “Make sure you keep these, okay?”

Pete nodded. He already had plans for them.

The day of their fifth wedding anniversary was spent inside their brand new four-bedroom house, similar to the one Brendon and Sarah enjoyed. Not that far away either.

After dinner, Pete made Patrick get comfy on the couch, Patrick laughing the entire time. He made Patrick wait as he ran to a closet and grabbed his guitar from it. He was back in front of Patrick in a second.

“Are you going to serenade me?” Patrick playfully suggested.

“After I tune my guitar,” Pete responded. Patrick adjusted on the couch, his excitement taking over his ability to be comfortable.

At last, the guitar was tuned and Pete beamed at Patrick as he started plucking the strings to form the beginning of the song. It was soft, comforting, and oddly recognizable. Patrick focused all he could to think of where he remembered the song, but it didn’t click until Pete started singing, his voice weak and unrefined, but beautiful all the same.

“ _Whenever you find it_

_It’s none of my business_

_Now wherever you go, go, go_

_It’s not my concern_ ” 

“’Allie’! Oh my gosh, Pete! You learned my song?” Patrick exclaimed, his body gestures full of life as he stood up. Pete nodded.

“ _But for a second your attention just belonged to me_

_And it passed so fast it just fractured all my cool_

_I’m not broken hearted_

_I’m just kinda pissed off_ ”

Patrick didn’t know how to react as Pete performed the rest. But he knew exactly what to do when Pete arrived at the last chorus.

“ _Allie I was so good back then_

_But I wonder if I’d be so good if I saw you again_

_Listen miss, you’ve got me_

_You should’ve taught me such naughty things_

_(Tonight we're going to do naughty things)_

_Oh, you could have taught me such naughty things… yeah_ ”

The moment Pete was finished and his guitar was put down, Patrick was attached to Pete’s lips, the kiss going as deep as he could make it as quickly as he could do it. He pulled from Pete, who was breathing heavily in his surprise. He moved to Pete’s ear and whispered, as low and hot as he could get it, “Bedroom. It’s time for me to give you my gift.”

Yeah, life was going to be fine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote this in the past hour to finally wrap this story up and I really hope I did it justice. Considering it's been ten months since I wrote the previous chapter, my style has changed it bit. 
> 
> I will explain why it took me so long though. So when I was regularly posting new chapters, I was really into this story and decided I wanted to write a part two. Well, I changed chapter five to be more ambiguous for two more chapters so I could prepare for a part two, and I kept telling myself I was going to do this, but then I just ...didn't. And because it took me so long I started to hate this fic. But like... I had to finish it. So here we are. It's done! Finally. I first started writing this almost two years ago on June 1st 2016.


End file.
